P  S 

1138 

W6 

C5 

1922 

MAIN 


University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

No.  2212:     March  22,  1922 


BROGKDEN  BROWN  AND  THE  RIGHTS 
OF  WOMEN 


BY 

DAVID  LEE  CLARK 

Instructor  in  English 


COMPARATIVE  LITERATURE  SERIES  No.  2 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  FOUR  TIMES  A  MONTH,  AND  ENTERED  AS 

SECOND-CLASS  MATTER  AT  THE  POSTOFFICE  AT  AUSTIN    TEXAS. 

UNDER  THE  ACT  OF  AUGUST  24,  1912 


*  The  benefits  of  education  and  of 
useful  knowledge,  generally  diffused 
through  a  community,  are  essential 
to  the  preservation  of  a  free  govern' 
ment. 

Sam   Houston 


Cultivated  mind  is  the  guardian 
genius  of  democracy.  ...  It  is  the 
only  dictator  that  freemen  acknowl 
edge  and  the  only  security  that  free 
men  desire. 

Miraheau  B.  Lamar 


P5  i|38 

Wfo  C5 


BROCKDEN  BROWN  AND  THE  RIGHTS 
OF  WOMEN 


BY 
DAVID  LEE  CLARK 

INSTRUCTOR    IN    ENGLISH 


I 


NOTE 

This  monograph  is  part  of  an  extended  study  of 
the  life  and  works  of  Brockden  Brown  which  the 
author  has  in  forward  state  of  preparation. 


INTRODUCTION 

One  cannot  correctly  appraise  the  literature  dealing  with 
the  social  and  political  emancipation  of  women  in  the  last 
third  of  the  eighteenth  century  without  some  knowledge  of 
the  evolution  of  the  thought  of  which  that  literature  is 
a  record.  Particularly  is  this  so  in  evaluating  the  work  of 
Mary  Wollstonecraft,  William  Godwin,  and  Brockden 
Brown.  It  is  too  generally  assumed  that  the  first  two  were 
the  originators  of  the  social  theories  that  are  now  so  in 
variably  associated  with  their  names ;  and  that  their  work 
in  turn  inspired  Brockden  Brown  in  America. 

Although  a  detailed  study  of  the  struggle  for  the  social 
and  political  freedom  of  women  is  beyond  the  scope  of  the 
present  work,  certain  general  tendencies  in  the  literature 
of  revolt  in  England,  France,  and  America,  will  be  briefly 
traced. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  neither  Mary  Wollstonecraft,  nor 
William  Godwin,  nor  yet  Brockden  Brown  was  an  original 
thinker,  for  there  is  nothing  really  new  in  any  of  them. 
Mary  Wollstonecraft  in  her  Rights  of  Women  (1792),  and 
Godwin  in  his  Political  Justice  (1793)  and  in  his  novels, 
did,  however,  _put  the  arguments  for  the  social  emancipation- 
of  men  and  women  in  imperislTabTe~  foTmranoTthus  estab 
lished  their  chief  claim  to  a  place  in  the  literature  of  the 
movement.  Brockden  Brown  was  familiar  with  the  works 
of  these  writers,  but  he  was  also  familiar  with  what  had 
been  done  by  others  earlier  than  the  time  of  Godwin.  It 
can  be  shown  that  Brown  was  full  of  the  revolutionary 
spirit  before  the  appearance  of  the  Rights  of  Women  and 
Political  Justice,  and  that  the  influence  of  these  two  works 
upon  Brown  has  been  overemphasized. 

Theories  of  government  and  social  reform  are  so  much 
a  part  of  Brown's  life  and  writings  that  some  account  of 
them  in  relation  to  his  predecessors  seems  necessary. 
RjCpwn/s  political_thepries  were  shaped  by  Locke  and  his 
French  and  American  disciples^  Hobbes  had  asserted  the 


6  university  of  Texas  Bulletin 

absolute  authority  of  the  ruler,  but  Locke  pointed  out  how 
the  compact  into  which  men  had  voluntarily  entered  by 
giving  up  some  of  their  natural  rights  for  certain  ad 
vantages,  was  unalterably  binding  upon  all  subsequent 
generations,  and  thus  were  established  those  rights  of  man 
that  no  law  of  man  or  king  could  transgress.  This  theory, 
so  generally  accepted  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  in  the  hands  of  the  radical  became  the  basis  of  an 
argument  that  led  straight  to  the  American  Revolution  and, 
subsequently,  to  the  greater  revolution  in  France.  But  in 
the  hands  of  the  conservative  it  was  a  tool  for  despotism, 
for  it  gave  a  kind  of  sanction  to  any  existing  order.  Per 
manence,  not  progress,  became  the  ideal  of  government. 
According  to  Locke  government  existed  solely  for  the  good 
of  the  people.  He  even  spoke  of  an  ideal  state,  a  golden 
age  in  the  past,  and  of  government  as  being  made  necessary 
to  check  the  ambition  and  luxury  that  have  subsequently 
crept  in.  No  man,  he  said,  should  be  governed  except  by 
his  own  consent,  and  no  man  should  be  punished  by  fallible 
men.  Yet  it  is  to  be  carefully  noted  that  these  doctrines 
of  the  natural  rights  of  man  had  no  marked  effect  upon  the 
English  people  as  a  whole,  for  in  England  the  conservative 
Whigs  interpreted  Locke  as  giving  sanction  to  the  position 
that  "whatever  is,  is  right/'  and  it  is  upon  this  ground  that 
Burke  defended  the  English  Constitution  and  condemned 
the  French  Revolution.  Price,  Priestley,  Paine,  Jefferson, 
Brockden  Brown,  and  others,  however,  put  a  construction 
upon  Locke's  theory  of  state  that  embraced  all  the  current 
radicalism  in  France,  England,  and  America.  William 
Godwin,  indeed,  was  an  ultraradical  and  would  have  abol 
ished  all  government. 

While  Locke's  plan  of  government  did  not  specifically  as 
sign  to  woman  a  place  in  the  body  politic,  by  implication,  at 
least,  she  was  acknowledged  to  be  an  important  factor  in 
the  social  fabric.  But  women  were  so  hopelessly  low  in  the 
social  scale  that  only  the  bravest  men  and  women  before 
1790  ventured  to  suggest  that  women,  like  men,  have  polit 
ical  rights.  They  had  first,  indeed,  to  be  emancipated  so 
cially  and  intellectually  before  any  thought  could  be  given 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women          1 

to  political  and  economic  freedom.  Woman  had  for  cen 
turies  been  considered  a  shallow,  helpless  creature,  tojbe 
petted,  caressed,  or  corrected  by  her  superior  lord,  or  else 
she  was  a  moral  being  whose  virtue  had  to  be  constantly 
guarded"  The  old  Hebre^w"canon  law  was  generally  in  force 
and  was  pointed  to  as  authority  for  the  enslavement  of 
women.  The  sacred  scriptures  were  invoked  to  prove  that 
woman  was  created  solely  for  the  comfort  of  man,  and  as 
such  had  no  liberty  of  active  or  independent  judgment. 
Her  highest  virtue  was  obedience  to  the  will  of  her  lord, 
and  her  chief  occupation  was  child-bearing.  Indeed,  her 
whole  life  was  regulated  by  these  considerations.  She  had 
no  part  in  the  moral,  intellectual,  or  economic  direction  of 
her  home,  and  no  authority  over  her  children.  But,  as 
there  was  no  alternative  course  to  marriage,  we_read  much 
in  the  literature  of  the  times  of  woman's  useof  social  tricks 
andT^naresTo  inveigle  men  into  marriage,  and  to  keep  them 
hoodwinked  afterwards"  This  notion  of  woman  as  a  mere 
charmer  grew  to  such  proportions  that  it  came  to  the  notice 
of  the  English  Parliament,  and  as  late  as  1770  a  law  was 
passed  that  prescribed  that  "all  women,  of  whatever  age, 
rank,  profession,  or  degree,  whether  virgins,  maids,  or 
widows,  that  shall,  from  and  after  such  act,  impose  upon, 
induce,  or  betray  into  matrimony,  any  of  his  Majesty's  male 
subjects  by  scents,  paints,  cosmetic  washes,  artificial  teeth, 
false  hair,  Spanish  wool,  iron  stays,  hoops,  high-heeled 
shoes,  etc.,  shall  incur  the  penalty  of  the  law  now  enforced 
against  witchcraft  and  like  demeanors,  and  that  the  mar 
riage  upon  conviction  shall  stand  null  and  void."1 

Oliver  Cromwell  in  the  famous  civil  marriage  code  of 
1653  sought  to  lighten  the  burden  for  women  by  placing 
all  marriages  and  divorces  in  the  hands  of  the  civil  courts, 
in  which  the  man  and  the  woman  were  on  an  equality.  But 
this  law  was  ineffectual,  for  public  opinion  was  against  it. 


^Woman:  Women  of  England,  Vol.  IX,  p.  318.  Cf.  Pope's  Epistle 
to  a  Lady  (1735)  in  which  woman's  ruling  passion  is  said  to  be 
"the  love  of  pleasure  and  the  love  of  sway." 


8  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

Milton's  attitude  toward  matrimony  was  more  nearly  rep 
resentative  of  the  Puritan  point  of  view.  He  pleaded  vig 
orously  for  liberal  divorce  laws,  but  solely  for  the  sake  of 
the  man.  Imbued  as  he  was  with  the  sentiments  of  the 
scriptures  Milton's  position  was  not  at  all  singular.  There 
were  many  arguments  in  the  literature  of  his  time  for  the 
enslavement  of  women.  It  is  not  necessary  in  this  connec 
tion  to  consider  the  social  freedom  of  certain  types  of  women 
in  the  beau  monde. 


The  first  significant  reaction  in  favor  of  women  set  in 
during  the  closing  years  of  the  seventeenth  century.-  Mary 
Astell  (1668-1731)  in  her  Serious  Proposal  (1695)  endea 
vored  to  lift  the  women  of  her  day  to  a  dignified,  moral, 
and  self-sustaining  life.  She  emphasized  economic  inde 
pendence  and  a  life  of  religious  service,  an  ideal  which  was 
to  be  attained  through  proper  education  of  young  women. 
It  may  be  urged  against  her  scheme  of  education  that  it 
was  too  far  removed  from  .life — a  kind  of  nunnery.  In 
her  Reflections  on  Marriage  (1700)  Mary  Astell  took  the 
contemporary  Lockean  view  of  the  permanence  of  the  mar 
riage  bond,  and  argued  against  divorce.  Her  remedy  for 
unhappiness  in  the  matrimonial  state  was  timely  preven 
tion  of  unwise  marriages.  This  prevention  would  be  found 
only  in  a  more  generous  education  for  women.  When  once 
married,  the  woman  was  submissively  to  bear  the  yoke; 
the  family  must  have  a  head  and  the  man,  though  not 
superior,  is  the  natural  head. 

Daniel  Defoe  in  his  An  Essay  Upon  Projects  (1697)  was 
the  first  writer  of  any  importance  to  champion  the  cause  of 
women.  In  a  way  his  essay  has  a  modern  ring  to  it,  and 
is  very  suggestive  of  Mary  Wollstonecraft  and  Brockden 
Brown.  He  argued  that  man  reproached  the  sex — the  usual 
designation  of  woman  throughout  the  eighteenth  century— 
for  folly  and  impertinence,  but  he  maintained  that  the  only 
remedy  for  the  deplorable  condition  of  women  was  adequate 
educational  opportunities.  It  is  a  wonder,  he  said,  that  they 
do  so  well  when  "their  youth  is  spent  to  teach  them  to  stitch 
and  sow  or  make  bawbles."  What  would  a  man  be  good 


-The  Renaissance  and  Reformation  had  promised  much  in  disa 
busing  the  minds  of  men  of  long-established  errors  and  prejudices, 
yet  their  influence  in  the  matter  was  but  limited  and  feeble.  Only 
a  few  men,  like  Coverdale,  Tyndale,  More,  and  Hooker  questioned 
the  absolute  authority  of  the  church  in  matters  of  divorce.  These 
men  maintained  the  dignity  of  woman,  and  claimed  for  her  an  equality 
with  man  in  matrimonial  affairs. 


10  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

for  if  taught  nothing  else?  Why  have  women  been  denied 
the  benefits  of  instruction  so  necessary?  Knowledge  and 
understanding  would  be  useful  to  the  sex,  and  why  can  any 
man  wish  to  keep  women  ignorant?  Why  upbraid  them 
with  folly  when  only  the  error  of  this  inhuman  custom  made 
them  foolish?  "The  capacities  of  women,"  he  goes  on  to 
say,  "are  supposed  to  be  great,  and  their  senses  are  quicker 
than  those  of  the  men."3  Have  men  denied  them  an  educa 
tion  for  fear  of  competition  with  themselves?  Defoe  was 
ultra-revolutionary  when  he  asserted  that  "God  has  given 
to  all  mankind  equal  gifts  and  capacities,  in  that  he  has 
given  them  all  souls  equally  capable;  and  that  the  whole 
difference  in  mankind  proceeds  either  from  accidental  dif 
ference  in  the  make  of  their  bodies,  or  from  the  foolish 
difference  of  education."*  Women  must  not  be  men's  cooks 
or  slaves,  but  men's  companions. 

I  have  dwelt  on  this  work  of  Defoe  because  there  is  a 
striking  similarity  of  argument  between  it  and  Brown's 
Rights  of  Women,  just  one  hundred  years  later.  Defoe 
makes  the  first  claim  for  woman's  natural  equality  with 
man.  In  only  one  particular  was  he  a  slave  to  contemporary 
prejudices,  and  even  in  this,  one  cannot  be  sure  that  Defoe 
was  not  ironical.  Woman's  virtue,  he  said,  must  be  a  clois 
tered  virtue,  and  consequently  proper  guards  must  be  set. 
He  would  place  women  in  public  academies  with  all  the 
facilities  for  advanced  work  in  the  arts  and  the  sciences, 
but  the  school  building  must  be  so  plain  and  so  situated 
that  a  watchful  eye  could  take  in  all  parts  of  it  at  one  glance ; 
and  he  would  take  particular  pains  to  surround  it  with  a 
large  moat  having  only  one  accessible  entrance,  that  intrig 
uing  with  young  men  might  be  made  difficult. 

The  work  of  Mary  Astell  and  of  Defoe  was  not  particu 
larly  influential,  and  the  first  third  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  saw  but  little  improvement  in  the  condition  of  women. 
The  attitude  of  Addison,5  under  the  thin  disguise  of  helping 

3 An  Essay  upon  Projects,  p,  284. 
*An  Essay   Upon  Projects,  p.  299. 

5Addison:  Tatler,  Nos.  100,  102,  120,  250,  256,  265;  Spectator,  Nos. 
37,  45,  311. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         11 

women,  was  one  of  contempt  for  their  weakness,  and  his 
was  the  typical  attitude,  for  married  life  was  still  thought 
of  as  a  sexual  relation;  the  wife  was  not  a  companion  of 
her  husband.  Education  was  deliberately  discouraged,  and 
an  open  sanction  of  a'  double  standard  of  morals  was  every 
where  given.  Such  a  condition  was  upheld  both  by  the 
teachings  of  the  church  and  by  the  practice  of  the  law,  and 
made  popular  in  current  literature. 

But  together  with  the  general  conception  of  the  weakness 
of  women  was  a  vague  feeling  on  the  part  of  some  men  that 
the  cause  of  the  low  social  condition  of  men  and  women 
alike,  was  the  neglect  of  woman's  education.  Unlike  Addi- 
son,  Richard  Steele  in  The  Christian  Hero  and  the  Jenny 
Distaff  numbers  of  The  Tatler*  pleaded  for  a  higher  view 
of  woman  than  the  conventional  one,  according  to  which 
immorality  was  considered  an  indication  of  high  spirits; 
in  his  dramas  the  loftier  virtues  always  triumph  ;  he  decried 
the  double  standard.  Steele  engendered  a  feeling,  which, 
as  the  years  passed,  grew  to  a  firm  conviction  in  the  minds 
of  many  unprejudiced  men  and  women  and  around  this 
conception  a  formidable  bulk  of  pamphlet  literature  sprang 
up.  Swift,  too,  held  that  women  were  not  entirely  to 
blame  for  the  deplorable  social  conditions.  "The  nobility 
and  gentry  of  both  sexes,"  he  said,  "are  entirely  corrupted, 
both  in  body  and  mind,  and  have  lost  all  notion  of  love, 
honor,  friendship,  generosity."  He  attributed  this  condi 
tion  to  the  exclusion  of  women  from  any  share  in  society, 
other  than  that  of  play,  dancing,  or  the  pursuit  of  an 
amour.  He  put  the  whole  trouble  succintly  when,  in  a 
Letter  to  a  Young  Lady  on  Her  Marriage,  he  said  that 
women  were  uneducated  and  unable  to  converse  intelli 
gently  on  important  matters,  that  they  spent  their  time  on 
trifles,  as  if  their  whole  existence  was  concerned  with  the 
cut  or  color  of  a  dress.  Again  he  wrote,  they  should  be 
educated  in  essential  things,  whereas  they  were  actually 
taught  to  be  fools,  coquettes,  gamesters,  talkers  of  nonsense, 


:   Tatter,  Nos.  10,  33,  36,  37,  79,  104,  143;  Spectator,  Nos. 
155,  182,  190,  266,  274,  437,  479. 


12  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

idlers.  How  then  could  they  hope  to  gain  the  esteem  of 
their  husbands?7  Swift  also  insisted  upon  a  single  standard 
of  morality  for  men  and  women.  "I  am  ignorant  of  any 
one  quality,"  he  said,  "that  is  amiable  in  a  man  which  is 
not  equally  so  in  woman.  I  do  not  except  modesty  and 
gentleness  of  nature.  Nor  do  I  know  any  vice  or  folly 
which  is  not  equally  detestable  in  both."8  Lady  Mary  Wort- 
ley  Montagu  in  a  letter  to  Wortley  Montagu  in  1710  de 
plores  the  general  notion  that  "ignorance  and  folly  are 
thought  the  best  foundation  for  virtue."9  In  another  let 
ter  she  says  that  "a  face  is  too  light  a  foundation  for  hap 
piness."10  She  wrote  to  the  Countess  of  Mar  in  1723  that 
she  was  "very  sorry  for  the  forlorn  state  of  matrimony — - 
both  sexes  have  found  the  inconvenience  of  it."11  But  Lady 
Mary  acknowledged  the  inferiority  of  women  in  all  respects. 
The  notion  of  the  relative  merits  of  the  sexes  had  grad 
ually  crept  into  the  discussions,  until  in  1739,  an  interesting 
pamphlet  war  was  on.  The  first  shot  was  an  article  en 
titled  Woman  Not  Inferior  to  Man,12  by  "Sophia,  a  Person 
of  Quality,"  in  which  women's  claims  to  economic  independ 
ence  were  strongly  protested.  The  writer  asserted  that 
women  are  capable  of  becoming  successful  doctors,  lawyers, 
professors,  legislators,  and  even  soldiers,  but  not  clergy - 
women.  This  was,  indeed,  the  boldest  claim  yet  made  for 
the  rights  and  powers  of  women.  But  such  a  challenge  did 
not  long  remain  unanswered,  for  a  fierce  attack  was  made 
in  the  same  year  in  a  pamphlet  calledd  Man  Superior  to 
Woman,™  which  concluded  that  women  were  qualified  for 

"'Essay  on  Education  of  Ladies. 

^Letter  to  a  Young  Lady  on  Her  Marriage. 

9Letters  of  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu,  London,  1861,  Vol.  I., 
p.  173. 

*°Ibid.,  p.  175. 

^Ibid.,  p.  474. 

*2Woman  Not  Inferior  to  Man:  or,  A  Short  and  Modest  Vindica 
tion  of  the  Natural  Rights  of  the  Fair  Sex  to  Perfect  Equality  of 
Power,  Dignity,  and  Esteem,  ivith  Men,  by  Sophia,  a  Person  of 
Quality. 

'•Wan.  Superior  to  Woman — containing  a  plain  confutation  of  the 
fallacious  arguments  of  Sophia  in  her  late  treatise  entitled,  Woman 
Not  Inferior  to  Man,  by  A  Gentleman. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         13 

nothing  but  the  propagation  of  the  race.  Sophia  replied  in 
another  pamphlet,14  repeating  much  of  the  argument  of  her 
first  article.  All  three  pamphlets  were  published  together 
as  Beauty's  Triumph  in  1751. 

In  an  article  in  the  Craftsman  (1739)  a  correspondent 
pleaded  for  professional  training  for  women,  particularly 
for  unmarried  women.  An  important  article  appeared  in 
the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  October,  1739,  under  the  rather 
daring  caption  of  A  New  Method  for  Making  Women  as 
Useful  and  as  Capable  of  Maintaining  Themselves  as  Men 
Are;  and  Consequently  Preventing  Their  Becoming  Old 
Maids,  or  Taking  III  Courses,  by  "a  Lady."  The  writer 
lamented  the  fact  that  women  spend  their  time  on  trifles, 
whereas  they  should  be  set  to  learning  useful  trades, 
such  as  those  of  glovers,  perfumers,  grocers,  mercers,  etc. 
These  trades,  she  maintained,  are  as  useful  and  as  cred 
itable  for  daughters  as  for  sons.  Only  by  making  them 
selves  economically  free  from  men  can  women  ever  rise 
to  the  dignity  of  human  beings.  Marriage  must  not  be 
their  only  occupation,  and  should  they  perchance  marry, 
they  should  be  considered  the  companions,  not  the  slaves 
or  toys,  of  their  husbands.  She  pointed  out  that  a  reaction 
in  favor  of  women  had  come,  that  the  leading  men  had 
acknowledged  women's  rights  and  capabilities. ir> 

Hume  in  1742  in  his  essay  Polygamy  and  Divorce 
pleaded  for  more  sensible  marriages — marriages  based  upon 
mutual  consent,  and  formed  upon  friendship.  But  in  his 
essay  on  The  Rise  of  the  Arts  and  Sciences  he  said  that 
nature  had  made  women  inferior  to  men  both  mentally  and 
physically.  William  Melmoth  in  letter  XLI  of  the  Letters 
of  Sir  Thomas  Fitzborne  (1750)  made  an  estimate  of 
the  comparative  merits  of  the  sexes.  It  is  granted  that 
men  are  physically,  mentally,  and  morally  superior  to 


l*Woman'8  Superior  Excellence  over  Man,  by  Sophia. 

ir'Claims  of  the  natural  rights  of  women  to  have  representation 
and  to  be  representatives  in  Parliament  found  their  way  into  the 
press  in  1739,  and  the  storm  of  discussion  continued  intermittently 
to  the  end  of  the  century. 


14  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

women,  but  not  by  nature — education  has  been  the  decid 
ing  factor  in  men's  superiority.  The  writer  deplores  the 
intellectual  condition  of  women,  and  pleads  for  proper  and 
efficient  training  for  them.  They  should  be  educated  for 
lives  of  usefulness.  They  should  study  the  sciences  liber 
ally  that  their  minds  might  be  freed  from  vulgar  prejudices, 
and  that!  they  might  become  reasonable  creatures.  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine  (November,  1765),  carried  a  review 
of  a  book  entitled  A  Dialogue  Concerning  the  Subjection  of 
Women  to  Their  Husbands,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to 
prove  the  propriety  of  their  inferior  position  by  the  usual 
appeal  to  existing  laws,  to  nature,  and  to  the  sacred  scrip 
tures.  Even  a  man  of  William  Blackstone's  ordinarily 
sound  judgment  could  maintain  that  existing  institutions 
were  very  generous  to  women. 

After  1750  there  was  a  new  conception  of  women,  and 
great  interest  was  everywhere  shown  in  their  proper  edu 
cation.  By  proper  education,  one  is  to  understand  that 
peculiar  variety  sponsored  by  Rousseau,  in  which  delicacy, 
softness,  sensibility,  obedience,  and  sexual  attraction  were 
considered  the  cardinal  virtues.  It  was  directly  against  the 
baleful  influence  of  the  books10  that  embodied  this  ideal  of 
woman's  education  that  Mary  Wollstonecraft  centered  her 
attack  in  her  Rights  of  Women  (1792). 

It  can  be  seen  from  this  survey  that  the  question  of  wom 
an's  rights,  from  Mary  Astell  to  Mary  Wollstonecraft,  was 
largely  a  question  of  her  social  and  intellectual  freedom. 
Only  once  was  there  any  claim  for  her  political  emancipa 
tion.  While  Defoe  and  Sophia  pleaded  for  the  economic 
independence  of  woman,  it  is  evident  that  they  considered 
her  social  and  intellectual  freedom  of  first  importance. 
During  the  years  from  1690  to  1790,  it  will  also  be  observed, 
there  was  no  conscious  effort  on  the  part  of  women  to  assert 


16Goldsmith's  The  Citizen  of  the  World  (Letter  XIX)  ;  Female 
Worthies  (1769)  ;  Alexander's  History  of  Women  (1769)  ;  Lord 
Kame's  Loose  Hints  upon  Education,  second  ed.,  1782;  Dr.  Gregory's 
Legacy  to  His  Daughters  (1784)  ;  J.  Bennett's  Strictures  on  Female 
Education  (1788)  ;  and  Hannah  More's  Essays  for  Young  Ladies 
(1789). 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         15 

their  claims  to  economic  and  political  rights  in  the  life  of 
the  nation.  But  we  shall  see  that  with  the  coming  of  the 
French  Revolution  and  the  industrial  revolution,  women  as 
sumed  an  importance  in  the  economic  and  political  life  of 
the  state  before  unknown. 

As  the  dawn  of  the  "French  Revolution  approached,  the 
rights  of  men  and  women  were  merged,  and  the  great  writ 
ers  fought  for  the  freedom  of  both.  Their  activity  ex 
pressed  itself  in  political  reform,  with  men  like  Paine,  Price, 
Priestley,  Holcroft,  Bage,  and  Godwin  as  champions;  in 
the  humanitarian  work  of  Howard,  Holcroft,  and  Cowper; 
in  simplification  in  religion,  law,  and  daily  life,  with  par 
ticular  emphasis  against  the  luxury  of  the  rich  and  priv 
ileged  classes,  with  Wesley,  Cowper,  Crabbe,  Burns,  and 
Mary  Wollstonecraft  as  advocates;  and  in  reform  in  the 
educational  system  which  most  of  these  writers,  particularly 
Cowper,  Mary  Wollstonecraft,  and  Godwin,  pleaded  for  as 
one  of  the  prerequisites  to  the  realization  of  the  whole  re 
form.  These  four  movements  were  not  always  clearly  de 
fined  in  the  minds  of  those  who  advocated  them,  but  in  the 
literature  of  the  day  one  is  constantly  faced  with  the  fact 
that  only  through  political  reform,  prison  reform,  universal 
benevolence,  and  the  regeneration  of  schools  and  colleges, 
could  a  state  of  society  be  realised  in  which  men  and  women 
would  be  valued  solely  for  their  individual  worth.  Some 
of  these  men  were  practical,  and  others  but  Utopian  dream 
ers,  and  as  they  were  almost  universally  read,  they  conse 
quently  had  the  chief  merit  of  provoking  discussion  and 
speculation  that  led  eventually  to  many  salutary  reforms 
and  laid  the  foundation  for  a  democratized  England. 

Benjamin  Franklin  once  said,  "Where  liberty  is,  there  is 
my  country,"  but  Thomas  Paine  modified  that  statement  by 
saying,  "Where  is  not  liberty,  there  is  mine."  This  is  the 
keynote  of  Paine's  life,  and  the  spirit  which  called  forth  this 
utterance  was  the  spirit  that  sent  Paine  to  America,  where 
his  services  to  the  cause  of  liberty  cannot  be  overestimated. 
As  editor  of  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine,  Paine  showed  him 
self  a  pioneer  in  social  and  political  reform.  He  early  ad 
vocated  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  helped  organize  the 


16  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

first  American  anti-slavery  society.  He  pleaded  for  the 
arbitration  of  international  laws;  and  he  demanded  justice 
for  women.  In  his  Common  Sense,  he  fought  manfully  for 
republicanism,  and  in  1787,  when  his  cause  had  been  won 
in  America,  he  carried  the  fight  to  British  soil,  where  in 
1791  appeared  his  most  important  book,  The  Rights  of  Man, 
as  an  answer  to  Burke' s  Reflections  on  the  French  Revolu 
tion  (1790).  This  work  aroused  such  opposition  in  Eng 
land  that  Paine  was  forced  to  flee  to  France,  where  he  was 
almost  immediately  declared  a  citizen  of  the  French  Re 
public,  and  elected  to  a  seat  in  the  Convention.  He  was 
soon  appointed  a  member  of  a  committee  of  five  to  draft  a 
constitution.  But  in  these  days  of  sudden  change,  Paine, 
like  many  of  the  great  leaders,  was  borne  down,  and  spent 
ten  months  in  a  prison  cell  awaiting  the  guillotine.  Yet 
Paine  never  grew  weary  in  the  service  of  liberty;  he  never 
faltered  or  lost  hope.  Thomas  Paine  was  perhaps  the  most 
daringly  original  thinker  of  his  time,  and  most  of  the  evils 
of  the  day  were  rigorously  and  relentlessly  exposed  by  him. 

What  Paine  so  signally  carried  forward  in  three  coun 
tries,  Richard  Price,  Joseph  Priestley,  Thomas  Holcroft, 
Robert  Bage,  William  Cowper,  William  Godwin,  and  Mary 
Wollstonecraft  advanced  in  their  several  spheres  in  Eng 
land.  Richard  Price  (1723-1791),  the  great  apologist  for 
the  Americans,  was  an  early  advocate  of  political  reform. 
His  famous  old  Jewry  Sermon  in  1789,  in  defense  of  revo 
lutionary  reforms,  provoked  Burke's  Reflections  on  the 
French  Revolution  (1790),  which  in  turn  called  forth 
Paine's  The  Rights  of  Man,  James  Mackintosh's  Vindiciae 
Galliciae,  and  Mary  Wollstonecraft's  Letter  to  Burke. 

Joseph  Priestley  (1733-1804),  noted  non-comformist 
theologian  and  philosopher,  was  identified  with  the  religious 
controversy  of  the  day;  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Unitarian  Society  in  1791 ;  vindicated  the  principles  of  the 
French  Revolution  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Burke ;  set  forth 
in  dialogue  form  the  general  principles  of  government 
(1791)  ;  advocated  the  abolition  of  slavery;  was  a  member 
of  the  famous  Constitutional  Society  and,  because  of  his 
activity  in  this  society,  was  forced  to  flee.  He  landed  in 


Brockden  Broivn  and  the  Rights  of  Women         17 

America.  June,  1794,  where,  as  a  close  friend  of  Franklin, 
he  received  a  warm  welcome.  He  was  a  liberal  in  politics 
and  at  once  took  sides  with  the  Republicanism  of  Jefferson, 
for  which  he  brought  down  upon  him  the  wrath  of  William 
Cobbett,  better  known  as  Peter  Porcupine. 

In  the  field  of  pure  literature  Thomas  Holcroft  (1745- 
1809)  is  the  best  representative  of  the  revolutionary  spirit. 
In  his  dramas17  and  in  his  novels' s  he  attacked  pride  of 
rank  and  wealth,  and  man's  domination  over  woman.  He 
taught  that  error  and  folly  had  impeded  progress  toward 
perfection,  and  that  truth  alone  can  make  men  happy. 
Robert  Bage  (1728-1801)  in  several  of  his  works19  pictures 
a  Utopia  like  the  Pantisocracy  of  Coleridge  in  1794,  and 
anticipates  parts  of  Brown's  second  dialogue  of  Alcuin,  as 
some  of  his  characters  and  situations  do  Godwin's  novels. 
He  held  that  reason  is  the  only  reliable  basis  of  action ;  that 
women  should  have  a  part  in  the  choice  of  a  husband ;  that 
marriage  should  be  for  friendship  and  esteem,  and  not  for 
love  merely,  and  should  be  a  contract  between  equals;  he 
pleaded  for  humane  divorce  laws,  for  economic  equality  of 
women  with  men,  to  be  realized  by  better  education  of 
women ;  and  finally  he  was  an  advocate  of  free  love  of  the 
Godwinian  variety. 

William  Godwin  (1756-1836)  was  early  attached  to  re 
publicanism,  and  by  1780  had  read  Rousseau,  Helvetius, 
Swift,  and  many  other  radicals;  but  he  was  far  from  ap 
proving  all  the  principles  of  the  Revolution.  In  fact  he  did 
not  believe  in  reform  through  violent  revolutions.  Reason 
would  right  all  wrongs,  if  only  given  free  rein.  Govern 
ment,  he  declared,  is  an  evil,  and  a  powerful  enemy  of 
progress,  and  as  the  race  grows  more  virtuous,  all  positive 
governmental  restraints  will  eventually  vanish  and  leave 
mankind  free  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  Godwin  detested 

l7The  School  of  Arrogance,  1791;  He's  Much  to  Blame  (1798); 
Love's  Frailties,  1794. 

™Alwyn   (1780);  Anna  St.  Ives    (1792);  Hugh  Trevor,  1794-1797. 

™Mount  Henneth  (1781)  ;  Barham  Downs  (1784)  ;  James  Wallace 
(1788);  Man  as  He  Is  (1792);  Man  as  He  Is  Not  or  Hermsprong 
(1796). 


18  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

luxury;  he  inveighed  against  the  condition  of  the  laboring 
classes,  and  called  for  a  minimum  of  daily  labor  and  a  max 
imum  of  amusement  and  study;  landlordism  and  the  whole 
system  of  property  were  attacked.  As  men's  characters 
originate  in  external  circumstances,  they  are  capable  of  vast 
improvement  through  proper  education,  but  unlike  Helvetius 
he  did  not  regard  men  as  absolutely  equal  at  birth,  and  he 
rejected  the  notion  of  innate  ideas.  Upon  this  argument, 
rests  Godwin's  belief  in  the  infinite  perfectibility  of  man. 
He  denounced  existing  educational  systems  as  destructive 
of  mind  and  body.  Since  the  voluntary  actions  of  men 
originate  in  their  opinions,  persuasion  rather  than  force, 
should  be  employed  to  teach  mankind.  Sincerity  he  looked 
upon  as  the  chief  virtue;  all  hypocrisies,  even  down  to  the 
social  or  white  lie,  must  be  abolished.  Man  was  not  orig 
inally  vicious  but  has  been  made  so  through  deceptions, 
prejudices,  and  errors  in  existing  positive  institutions.  He 
declared  that  the  institution  of  marriage  is  a  fraud,  and 
cohabitation,  an  evil. 

His  advocacy  of  social  and  political  reform,  however,  has 
little  claim  to  originality;  he  merely  did  for  the  larger 
principles  of  the  Revolution  what  Mary  Wollstonecraft  did 
for  the  emancipation  of  women — he  putjhem  into  readable 
and  impressive  form  in  his  Political  Justice  (T793). The 
only  striking  way  in  which  the  book  differed  from  current 
political  and  social  doctrines  was  in  the  emphasis  placed 
upon  idealized  anarchy.  Yet  one  must  not  overlook  the 
fact  that  Godwin  gave  to  the  whole  body  of  radicalism  a 
permanent  expression  in  a  single  work,  and  as  such  he  will 
always  be  looked  upon  as  a  vigorous  proponent  of  the  rev 
olutionary  doctrines  of  his  day. 

While  Bage,  Holcroft,  Godwin,  and  others  deplored  the 
condition  of  women,  and  wrote  much  in  their  behalf,  it 
remained  for  Mary  Wollstonecraft  to  put  into  lasting  form 
the  various  pleas  of  the  century  for  her  sex.  In  1787  she 
wrote  Thoughts  on  the  Education  of  Daughters,  in  which 
she  denounced  artificial  manners  and  commended  simplicity 
of  conduct  and  practical  knowledge.  This  pamphlet  is  a 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         19 

kind  of  introduction  to  her  better  known  work,  The  Vindica 
tion  of  the  Rights  of  Women  (1792).  The  Vindication  is 
remarkable  for  that  time  as  a  daring  plea  by  a  woman  for 
her  sex ;  it  is  the  boldness,  the  fire  and  passion  of  her  argu 
ment  that  have  made  the  work  live.  There  is  nothing  new 
in  it  but  the  spirit  of  its  author.  The  book  is  poorly 
planned,  is  full  of  repetitions  and  digressions,  but  there  is 
clearly  running  through  it  an  unmistakable  argument  for 
the  dignity  of  women  as  human  beings.  Like  her  predeces 
sors  she  argued  for  marriage  based  upon  esteem  and 
friendship,  and  for  the  same  education  for  both  sexes,  so 
that  sex  distinctions  might  be  minimized.  But  while  she 
asserted  woman's  capacity  for  many  trades,  she  insisted 
that  her  chief  place  is  the  home,  where  she  should  have  a 
voice  in  the  education  of  her  children.  The  sentimentalism 
of  Richardson,  Sterne,  and  Rousseau  was  vigorously  as 
sailed.  She  pleaded  for  women  of  dignity  and  sense. 


II 

Since  one  cannot  escape  the  fact  that  the  advocates  of 
freedom  for  women  in  England  and  America  took  their  first 
principles  from  France,  a  brief  account  of  the  movement 
toward  the  disillusionment  of  men  and  women  in  that 
country  seems  advisable  at  this  point. 

Some  twenty  years  before  Mary  Astell  and  Defoe  had 
pleaded  for  the  social  and  intellectual  freedom  of  women  in 
England,  Poulain  de  la  Barre  (1647-1723),  in  France,  set 
forth  the  same  contention  in  three  remarkably  modern 
books  on  the  social  position  and  education  of  women:  De 
VEgalite  des  deux  Sexes  (1673),  De  V  Education  des  Dames 
(1679),  and  De  I'Excellence  des  hommes  contre  I'Egalite 
des  Sexes  (1675).  S.  A.  Richards  in  Feminist  Writers  of 
the  Seventeenth  Century,  (pp.  90-93),  sums  up  Poulain's 
work  in  these  terms:  "He  denies  that  woman  is  in  any 
sense  inferior  to  man :  her  characteristic  failings  are  due  to 
custom,  tradition  and  defective  education.  She  is  in  every 
^way  as  capable  as  man,  jsex  having  no  influence  on  mind, 
and  even  as  regards  physical  effort  for  which  her  strength  is 
insufficient,  it  is  probable  that  with  proper  training  she 
would  acquit  herself  equally  well."  Poulain_jnaintained 
that  since  virtue  is  based  uponjoiowledge,  education  is  an 
absolute  essential  foT~women's  happiness  and  well-being. 
"As  for  the  form  that  this  education  is  to  take,  Poulain 
would  shorten  the  route  by  omitting  Greek  and  Latin,  and 
substituting  good  French  translations  for  the  original  clas 
sical  authors.  In  other  respects  the  curriculum  would  fol 
low  the  lines  of  a  liberal  humanistic  education."  Poulain's 
works,  like  Brown's  Alcuin,  are  cast  in  dialogue,  and  there 
is  a  striking  similarity  in  the  emphasis  that  both  place  on 
certain  arguments;  but  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any 
specific  reference  to  Poulain  or  his  writings  in  Brown's 
works. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         21 

Montesquieu  (1689-1755)  in  his  The  Spirit  of  Laws20  had 
exalted  the  English  constitution  and  endeavored  to  show 
that  it  was  the  influence  of  climate  that  differentiated  the 
races  of  mankind.  But  this  notion  precluded,  by  the  very 
nature  of  things,  any  possibility  of  reform,  and  consequent 
ly  he  was  attacked  from  many  quarters,  particularly  by 
Helvetius  (1715-1771)  in  Of  Laws.21  In  this  book  the  first 
rumblings  of  the  French  Revolution  were  heard,  and  it  be 
came  the  text-book  for  young  radicals  for  nearly  a  genera 
tion.  Helvetius  urged  that  men  are  the  products  of  con 
ditions — conditions,  which  education,  in  the  larger  sense, 
can  greatly  modify.  He  rejected  the  notion  of  innate  ideas, 
and  accounted  for  genius  not  by  birth,  but  by  differences  in 
education.  He  even  maintained  that  so-called  idiots  were 
capable  of  being  raised  by  education  to  normal.  Above  all 
Helvetius  denounced  existing  positive  institutions,  partic 
ularly  of  government,  as  the  source  of  all  the  errors  and 
prejudices  of  mankind.  This  last  contention  was  strongly 
and  more  convincingly  restated  by  Holbach  (1723-1789)  in 
his  The  System  of  Nature.-3  It  is  the  wandering  from 
nature's  laws  that  has  brought  calamity  upon  mankind;  it 
is  to  errors  and  prejudices  that  misunderstandings  must  be 
attributed.  Unlike  Rousseau,  who  asserted  that  man  is 
born  free,  but  is  everywhere  in  chains,  Holbach  insisted 
that  men  never  were  free,  that  they  have  always  been  slaves 
to  natural  laws.  Consequently,  any  positive  institution 
must  be  false  and  injurious.  This  is  a  conception  far  re 
moved  from  the  social  contract  doctrine  of  the  early 
eighteenth  century.  Indeed,  it  was  just  the  step  necessary 
to  lead  to  revolution  and  reform  in  governments  and  morals. 
To  men  like  Helvetius,  Holbach,  Voltaire,  Diderot,  and  Tur- 
got  one  must  look  for  the  early  revolutionary  impulse  that 
stirred  the  men  and  women  of  two  continents  to  demand 
reforms. 

But  when  the  great  French   Revolution   came  and  the 


•^Esprit  des  lois  (1748). 

21De  I' esprit  (1758). 

-*Sy steme  de  la  nature   (1770). 


22  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

young  disciples  of  these  so-called  radicals  were  in  the  sad 
dle,  they  displayed  marked  conservatism  in  the  first  con 
stitution  (1791).  That  great  document  declared  that  in 
order  to  be  an  active  citizen  it  is  necessary  to  be  twenty-five 
years  of  age ;  to  be  domiciled  in  the  city  or  canton  for  the 
time  fixed  by  law.  The  voter  had  to  present  a  tax  receipt 
for  taxes  of  the  value  of  three  days'  work.  It  is  notable 
that  women  were  not  to  be  classed  as  active  citizens.  As 
the  revolution  progressed  there  was  a  marked  tendency  to 
institute  the  reforms  of  the  early  agitators.  On  August  11, 
1792,  by  a  special  decree,  the  distinction  between  active  and 
non-active  citizen  was  abolished;  the  age  limit  of  voters 
was  lowered  to  twenty-one;  the  period  of  residence  was 
made  one  year;  and  no  tax  receipt  was  required.  The 
voter  had  only  to  show  that  he  was  living  on  the  income 
of  his  own  labor.  In  the  constitution  of  the  Year  One, 
(June  24,  1793),  even  the  servant  classes  were  given  their 
freedom,  and  all  foreigners  who  had  done  well  for  human 
ity  were  allowed  to  vote — Thomas  Paine  was  a  notable 
beneficiary  of  this  condition.  But  this  constitution  never 
took  effect.  On  February  4,  1794,  negroes  were  made  cit 
izens  of  the  French  Republic.24 

During  the  trying  days  of  the  Reign  of  Terror,  Condorcet 
(1743-1794)  wrote  his  Historical  Picture  of  the  Progress  of 
the  Human  Mind,25  in  which  he  commended  the  work  of 
Turgot,  Price,  and  Priestley,  and  gave  particular  emphasis 
to  the  famous  doctrine  of  the  infinite  perfectibility  of  man. 
Among  the  causes  of  human  improvement  that  one  is  most 
conducive  to  the  general  welfare  that  seeks  the  total  anni 
hilation  of  the  prejudices  which  have  established  an  in 
equality  of  rights  between  the  sexes.  In  vain  might  one 
search  for  motives  to  justify  this  distinction  in  differences 
of  physical  organization,  of  intellect,  or  moral  sensibility. 
Condorcet  insisted  even  more  strongly  than  Holbach  had 


24Anderson,  F.  M.,  The  Constitutions  and  Other  Select  Documents 
Illustrative  of  the  History  of  France  (1789-1901),  Minneapolis,  1904. 

-r>Esquisse  d'un  tableau  historique  des  progres  de  V esprit  humain 
(1794). 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         23 

done,  upon  the  absolute  necessity  of  reform  in  education 
for  women.  He  courageously  maintained  that  there  should 
be  no  distinction  in  the  form  or  content  of  the  education  of 
men  and  women  ;  women  should  be  allowed  to  study  the 
natural  sciences.  They  should  be  educated  for  motherhood. 
His  final  plea  was  that_women_Ji^vp 


the  knowledge  that  men  are  entitled  Jbo;  and  all  instruction 
should  be  given  in  common,  thus  raising  the  standard  of 
morality  by  annihilating  false  modesty.-"  These  ideas  are 
found  in  his  report27  to  the  Convention  (1792)  on  the  na 
tional  education  bill,  and  consequently  had  a  wide  circula 
tion,  and  they  mark  Condorcet  as  the  greatest  champion  of 
woman's  rights  before  John  Stuart  Mill. 


26It  is  necessary  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  at  the  very 
outset  of  the  Revolution  certain  radicals,  among  them  Talleyrand- 
Perigord  and  Condorcet,  made  serious  demands  for  universal  suf 
frage,  including  women.  These  demands,  embodied  in  the  famous 
Cahiers,  were  presented  to  the  king  and  to  the  National  Assembly 
in  1789  by  Condorcet,  but  they  were  rejected  by  both  with  scorn  and 
derision. 

27"Rapport  sur  Porganisation  generale  de  1'instruction  publique 
presente  a  PAssemblee  nationale  legislative. 


Ill 

During  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century,  America 
became  an  asylum  for  the  radicals  and  the  political  regu- 
gees  of  France  and  England,  and  as  a  rule  these  men  joined 
in  vigorously  in  the  political  disputes  of  the  day.  It  is  .no 
wonder,  then,  that  America  was  for  a  time  a  forum  for 
the  discussion  of  the  rights  of  men  and  women.  Nor  is  it 
surprising  that  Brockden  Brown,  then  growing  into  man 
hood,  was  stirred  by  the  arguments  heard  on  every  hand. 
Without  doubt,  it  was  during  these  formative  years  that 
Brown's  zeal  for  the  freedom  of  mankind  was  first  awak 
ened.  And  yet  this  is  not  the  whole  story,  for  there  had 
been  certain  influences  at  work  in  America  with  which 
Brown  must  have  been  acquainted.  Some  account  of  these 
influences  will  now  be  taken. 

The  social  condition  of  women  in  America  in  the  eigh 
teenth  century  was  not  markedly  different  from  that  in  the 
mother  country.  There  was  perhaps  less  of  social  frivolity 
and  immorality  in  sparsely  settled  America  than  in  the 
crowded  districts  of  the  old  world.  But  colonial  customs 
and  social  distinctions  paralleled  in  a  remarkable  way  those 
in  England.  In  regard  to  marriage  the  laws  were  strik 
ingly  similar.  In  America  as  in  England  the  Quakers  were 
most  liberal  in  their  views  of  matrimony ;  and  owing  to  thjs 
liberality  many  false  charges  were  brought  against  them. 
William  Penn  had  held  that  marriage  was  a  divine  ordin 
ance,  and  that  God  alone  could  rightly  join  men  and  women ; 
consequently,  the  priest  and  ecclesiastical  courts  were  ruled 
out.  The  Quakers,  generally,  believed  that  marriage  was  a 
matter  to  be  left  to  the  conscience  of  the  individual  man 
and  woman.  Thus  it  was  said  that  they  did  not  celebrate 
marriage  decently. 

Divorces  during  the  eighteenth  century  in  America  on 
any  ground  were  very  difficult  to  obtain.  In  almost  every 
case  the  laws  favored  the  man.  Connecticut,  however,  did 
insist  upon  the  equality  of  men  and  women  in  matters  of 


Brockden  Broivn  and  the  Rights  of  Women         25 

divorce.  In  New  York  there  was  not  a  single  case  of  di 
vorce  during  the  Colonial  period,  and  only  by  a  special  act 
of  the  legislature  could  a  marriage  be  annulled.  In  New 
Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  there  is  no  evidence  that  divorces, 
partial  or  absolute,  were  common.  In  the  Southern  States 
there  is  not  a  case  of  absolute  divorce  on  record  before 
1775.28 

Politically,  however,  the  women  of  America  fared  better 
than  their  sisters  in  England  and  France.  The  early  Puri 
tans  were  not  enthusiasts  for  political  freedom,  but  there 
was  a  tendency  toward  democratic  principles  in  their  man 
agement  of  communities,  particularly  in  town-meetings. 
Yet  their  idea  of  government  was  theocratic  rather  than 
democratic.  It  was  among  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey,  however,  that  the  most  liberal  ideas  of 
government  were  to  be  found.  As  a  religious  sect  the 
Quakers  stood  alone  in  maintaining  the  essential  equality 
of  men  and  women,  and  in  all  important  matters  women 
were  allowed  the  same  rights  as  men.  The  Friends  be 
lieved  that  the  form  of  government  did  not  matter  so  much 
as  the  character  of  the  men  in  whose  hands  the  government 
is  lodged.  Good  men  will  make  good  laws. 

Before  the  American  Revolution  there  was,  however,  prac 
tically  no  philosophical  speculation  on  theories  of  govern 
ment,  but  a  steady  progress  toward  democratization  is  no 
ticeable.29  The  lofty  terms  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  nevertheless,  opened  men's  minds,  as  they  had 
never  before  been  opened,  to  the  essential  principles  of  gov 
ernment.  Locke  and  his  English  and  French  disciples  be 
came  the  basis  for  discussions.  Natural  rights,  laws  of  na 
ture,  social  contract,  consent  of  the  governed,  the  general 
welfare,  were  terms  that  became  familiar  to  all  Americans. 
It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  some  of  them  were  led  into 
fields  of  speculation  and  dreamed  of  ideal  commonwealths. 


28 A  History  of  Matrimonial  Institutions  Chiefly  in  England  and 
the  United  States,  by  George  Elliott  Howard,  Chicago,  1904. 

2gA  History  of  American  Political  Theories,  by  C.  E.  Merriam, 
New  York,  1913. 


26  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

The  mildest  of  these  held  that  government  is  a  necessary 
evil,  and  that  consequently  the  least  government  is  the  best 
government.  This  idea  of  the  minimum  of  government  be 
came  in  time  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  one  of  the  great 
political  parties.  It  was  only  one  step  from  this  essential 
fear  of  all  government  to  the  question  of  no  government, 
or  rather  to  the  contemplation  of  a  perfect  state  of  society 
in  which  positive  institutions  are  unnecessary. 

In  the  formation  of  the  American  Constitution,  however, 
as  with  the  first  French  Constitution,  the  most  radical  be 
came  conservative  to  a  marked  degree,  and  the  much-her 
alded  natural  rights  and  natural  equality  of  the  Declaration 
were  partially,  and  in  some  instances  entirely,  brushed  aside. 
The  question  of  suffrage  was  an  all-important  one,  and  in 
the  minds  of  the  most  liberal,  the  limitations  put  upon  the 
exercise  of  the  franchise  were  unjust  and  but  one  step 
removed  from  conditions  in  England.  It  was  a  turning 
back  toward  aristocracy.  Thomas  Jefferson  was  an  advo 
cate  of  universal  male  suffrage,  but  he  acknowledged  that 
those  who  insisted  upon  a  property  qualification  were  honest 
men,  and  had  some  solid  basis  of  argument.  Franklin  held 
that  it  was  an  impropriety  to  allow  the  vote  to  those  without 
landed  property.  The  several  state  constitutions  had  va 
rious  qualifications,  and  between  federal  and  state  limita 
tions  the  actual  voting  population  was  but  a  small  fraction 
of  the  male  inhabitants.  When  all  women,  all  slaves,  all 
immigrants  under  a  certain  limit  of  residence,  and  all  men 
who  lacked  the  property  qualification,  were  denied  the  fran 
chise,  it  was  plain  to  many  Americans  that  democracy  in 
practice  was  far  from  the  ideal  government  that  the  Decla 
ration  proclaimed. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  to  find  many  who  protested  against 
this  discrepancy.  Although  the  majority  of  the  Founding 
Fathers  saw  no  inconsistency,30  religious,  property,  or  racial 
limitations  were  held  by  some,  at  least,  to  be  inconsistent 
with  the  natural  rights  of  man.  There  had  been,  neverthe 
less,  a  significant  change  in  attitude  among  the  leaders  since 


30A  History  of  American  Political  Theories,  by  C.  E.  Merriam. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women        27 

1776.  This  reaction  is  best  expressed  in  the  Constitution  of 
1787,  and  when  it  was  submitted  for  ratification  the  great 
men  of  the  time  split  into  two  camps :  those  that  favored 
the  limited  democracy  of  that  instrument,  and  those  that 
called  for  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and 
for  the  people.  The  Federalist,  a  series  of  essays  by  Ham 
ilton,  Madison,  and  Jay,  took  the  side  of  the  proposed  con 
stitution.  Annual  election,  weak  central  government,  and  a 
more  liberal  franchise  were  advocated  by  the  more  demo 
cratic  group,  led  by  Jefferson.  John  Adams  asserted  that 
the  people  are  unworthy  of  trust,  and  questioned  the  fea 
sibility  of  any  democratic  government. 

When  the  great  shock  of  the  French  Revolution  reached 
America,  with  a  consequent  swing  to  the  Jeffersonian  theo 
ries,  there  followed  a  decade  of  debate  between  Federalist 
and  Republicans  which  drew  to  it  almost  every  American 
of  talent.  The  pamphlet  war  which  resulted  was  the  fiercest 
known  in  American  history.  John  Adams  was  the  leader 
of  the  reactionary  Federalists,  Jefferson  of  the  democratic 
group,  and  around  these  two  men  the  nation  gathered.  Jef 
ferson  was  the  more  popular  leader,  with  his  trust  in  the 
ultimate  wisdom  of  the  mass  of  plain  people.  And  his  cause 
triumphed  until  the  Reign  of  Terror  in  France  alarmed  the 
moro  conservative  of  his  followers.  This  alarm  over  its  al 
leged  alliance  with  the  radicals  of  France  gave  rise  to  a  most 
scathing  attack  on  the  Republican  party.  That  Jefferson's 
philosophy  of  government  was  largely  derived  from  France 
cannot  be  denied,  but  he  was  far  from  the  radical  that  his 
opponents  painted  him.  He  did  highly  commend  the  work 
of  Condorcet,  particularly  The  Progress  of  the  Human  Mind, 
and  he  may  have  derived  some  of  his  own  ideas  from  this 
work. 

In  the  numerous  political  discussions  that  make  up  so 
much  of  American  history  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century,  a  few  pages  at  least  were  devoted  to  the 
rights  of  women.  Margaret  Brent  of  Maryland  asserted 
her  right  to  a  seat  in  the  legislature;  Richard  Henry  Lee 
was  an  advocate  of  woman  suffrage;  and  Abigail  Adams 


28  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

wrote  to  her  husband  in  their  behalf.31  The  Quakers  had 
always  maintained,  as  has  been  already  observed,  the  es 
sential  equality  of  women  with  men.  But  the  general  at 
titude  toward  women  is  best  expressed  in  a  letter  by  John 
Adams  to  James  Sullivan,  May  26,  1776,  in  which  he  said : 
"But  why  exclude  women?  You  will  say,  because  their 
delicacy  renders  them  unfit  for  practice  and  experience  in 
the  great  businesses  of  life,  and  the  hardy  enterprises  of 
war,  as  well  as  the  arduous  cares  of  state.  Besides,  their 
attention  is  so  much  engaged  with  the  necessary  nurture  of 
their  children,  that  nature  has  made  them  fittest  for  domes 
tic  cares.32 

Certain  state  constitutions,  however,  admitted  women  to  a 
larger  share  in  the  life  of  the  state  than  they  could  hope  for 
under  the  federal  government.  This  was  notably  the  case  in 
New  Jersey,  where  from  1790  to  1807,  women  were  allowed 
to  vote,  a  privilege  due  largely  it  seems,  to  the  liberality  of 
the  Quakers  of  that  state.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that 
they  rarely  exercised  this  right.  But  an  occasion  once  arose 
in  which  the  woman  vote  became  the  deciding  factor,  and 
gave  rise  to  a  most  lively  discussion  in  the  press.  John 
Condit  of  Newark,  a  Republican,  and  William  Crane  of 
Elizabethtown,  a  Federalist,  were  in  a  close  race  for  the 
legislature,  and  in  an  endeavor  to  defeat  his  opponent,  Crane 
secured  many  women  from  Elizabethtown  to  vote  for  him, 
but  he  was  defeated.  The  newspaper  war  which  followed, 
for  and  against  woman  suffrage,  soon  passed  beyond  the 
bounds  of  the  state,  and  for  some  time  centered  attention 
on  the  rights  of  women.33  This  event,  the  exciting  national 
election  of  1796,  and  the  criticism  of  the  Jay  Treaty,  un 
doubtedly  furnished  ample  incentive  for  Brockden  Brown's 
Alcuin  or  The  Rights  of  Women. 

Such  is  a  brief  account  of  some  of  the  more  important 
phases  of  the  emancipation  of  woman.  We  have  seen  that 
the  promise  which  the  Reformation  held  out  was  very  slow 

31A  History  of,  American  Political  Theories,  by  C.  E.  Merriman. 
32Library  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  199-200. 
33Smith  College  Studies  in  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  165-187. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         29 

in  working  its  way  into  the  minds  of  the  later  Puritans,  but 
nevertheless,  there  were  gains,  however  slight  they  may 
have  been.  It  has  been  pointed  out  how  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  both  in  France  and  in  England, 
a  great  impetus  was  given  to  the  movement  by  writers  like 
Mary  Astell,  Defoe,  Fenelon,  Poulain  de  la  Barre,  and  others ; 
and  how  that  movement  increased  until  almost  every  writer 
of  any  importance  was  drawn  to  one  side  or  the  other  of  the 
question.  We  have  also  seen  how,  as  the  forces  which  made 
for  the  great  revolutions  in  France  and  America  became 
dominant,  the  rights  of  women  were  merged  with  the 
greater  rights  of  mankind.  It  has  likewise  been  observed 
that,  although  the  movement  had  an  early  beginning  in  Eng 
land,  it  was  in  France  that  it  reached  its  earliest  maturity. 
It  was  to  France  that  young  English  and  American  demo 
crats  looked  for  inspiration.  It  was  from  France  that  the 
first  principles  of  the  works  of  Mary  Wollstonecraft  and 
William  Godwin  came.  We  have  seen  that  in  both  France 
and  England  emphasis  was  first  placed  upon  the  social  and 
intellectual  emancipation  of  women,  but  that  in  the  closing 
decades  of  the  eighteenth  century  arguments  centered 
around  their  economic  and  political  freedom.  It  is  of  this 
latter  side  of  the  movement  that  Brockden  Brown  became 
an  ardent  proponent. 

To  say  that  Brown  was  familiar  with  the  great  body  of 
this  literature  of  dissent  would  be,  of  course,  an  unwar 
ranted  assumption;  but  that  he  was  acquainted  with  much 
of  it  is  beyond  dispute.  Concerning  Brown's  formative 
years,  it  is  said  "that  he  was  a  frail,  studious  child,  reputed 
a  prodigy,  and  encouraged  by  his  parents  in  that  frantic 
feeding  upon  books  which  was  expected,  in  those  days,  of 
every  American  boy  of  parts.  By  the  time  he  was  sixteen 
he  had  made  himself  a  tolerable  classical  scholar — and  hurt 
his  health  by  over-work.  As  he  grew  older  he  read  with  a 
hectic,  desultory  sweep  in  every  direction  open  to  him.  With 
his  temper  and  education,  he  developed  into  a  hot  young 
philosopher  in  those  days  of  revolution.  He  brooded  over 
the  maps  of  remote  regions,  glowed  with  eager  schemes  for 


30  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

perfecting  mankind."34  This  zeal  for  knowledge  and  this 
enthusiasm  for  the  betterment  of  mankind  were  not  at  all 
singular  in  a  boy  reared  amidst  the  bustle  and  shifting 
scenes  of  the  nation's  intellectual  and  political  capital.  Phil 
adelphia  thronged  with  French  political  refugees.  And  dur 
ing  these  stirring  days  Brown  is  reputed  to  have  learned 
the  French  language  that  he  might  gain  a  first-hand  knowl 
edge  of  French  literature.  Such  names  as  Fenelon,  La 
Bruyere,  La  Rochefoucauld,  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  are  scat 
tered  through  the  pages  of  his  early  essays  and  addresses. 
It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  Brown  had  access  to  the 
best  libraries  in  the  nation,  and  that  he  frequented  the  home 
of  that  liberal-minded  American,  Benjamin  Franklin.  When 
all  these  facts  are  considered,  one  is  not  surprised  that 
Brown  showed  himself  familiar  with  all  the  current  argu 
ments  for  the  social,  political,  and  economic  rights  of  man 
and  woman.  It  appears  now  that  he  had  decided  opinions 
on  such  matters  before  the  appearance  of  the  works  of  Mary 
Wollstonecraft  and  William  Godwin,  and  that  those  opinions 
were  stimulated  by  his  French  reading.  An  analysis  of 
Alcuin  will  show  that  Brown's  sources  were  not  specific', 
but  general. 


34Van  Doren,  Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I, 
p.  287. 


IV 

\ 

Alcuin  is  important  as  the  first  published  volume  of  the 
first  professional  author  in  America,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
the  bibliographer  as  one  of  the  rarest  American  books.35 
And  yet  the  curious  student  will  search  in  vain  for  any  ac 
curate  discussion  of  it.  According  to  Dunlap  it  was  written 
in  the  "fall  and  winter  of  the  year  1797,":i(i  and  the  same 
year  has  often  been  referred  to  as  the  year  of  publication. 
There  is  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  Alcuin  was  com 
posed  during  the  exciting  fall  of  1796.  It  was  issued  in 
book  form  from  the  press  of  T.  &  J.  Swords,  No.  99  Pearl 
Street,  New  York,  in  March,  1798,  and  reprinted  in  the 
Weekly  Magazine  of  Philadelphia  (March  17 — April  7, 
1798)  as  The  Rights  of  Women.  Dunlap's  statement  that 
it  was  written  in  the  fall  and  winter  of  1797  has  misled 
every  subsequent  critic  of  Brown's  work.  No  one,  it  seems, 
has  ever  suspected  the  existence  of  a  sequel  to  Alcuin,  and 
yet,  by  a  curious  circumstance,  it  is  the  sequel  or  second 
dialogue  and  not  the  original  upon  which  discussion  of  the 
book  has  been  based.37  The  matter  is  easy  to  explain.  The 

35The  only  copy  of  which  I  have  any  knowledge  is  in  the  New  York 
Public  Library. 

™Life  of  Brown,  Vol.  I,  p.  70. 

37 (A)  "Brown's  inquisitive  and  speculative  mind  partook  of  the 
prevailing  skepticism.  Some  of  his  compositions,  and  especially  one 
on  The  Rights  of  Women,  published  in  1797,  shows  to  what  extent 
a  benevolent  mind  may  be  led." — W.  H.  Prescott  in  Sparks'  "Library 
of  American  Biography,"  Vol.  I,  p.  129.  (B)  "Near  the  close  of 
1797  he  published  his  first  work,  Alcuin,  A  Dialogue  on  the  Rights  of 
Women.  It  is  not  without  ingenuity." — The  Prose  Writers  of  Amer 
ica,  Griswold,  p.  107.  (C)  "He  wrote  in  the  fall  and  winter  of  1797 
a  work  which  he  refers  to  in  his  journal  as  'the  dialogue  of  Alcuin, 
in  which  the  topic  of  marriage  is  discussed  with  some  degree  of  sub 
tlety  at  least.'  It  was  published  in  the  same  year,  but  its  crude 
and  hazardous  theories  on  the  subject  of  divorce  and  other  social 
topics  attracted  little  attention."  E.  A.  and  G.  L.  Duyckinck  in  the 
Cyclopedia  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I,  p.  397.  (D)  "His  first 
work,  'The  Dialogues  of  Alcuin,'  published  in  1797,  to  which  he  refers 


32  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

original  Alcuin  as  published  by  Swords,  March,  1798.  car 
ried  an  "Advertisement"  signed  by  E.  H.  Smith,  in  which 
he  states  that  "the  following  dialogue  was  put  into  my 
hands,  the  last  spring,  by  a  friend  who  resides  at  a  distance, 
with  liberty  to  make  it  public.  I  have  since  been  informed 
that  he  has  continued  the  discussion  of  the  subject  in  an 
other  dialogue."  Now  the  Smith  Alcuin  is,  as  I  have  stated, 
exceedingly  rare,  and  it  appears  that  no  critic  has  ever  com 
pared  it  with  the  "copious  extracts"  in  Dunlap's  Life  of 
Brown.  It  has  simply  been  assumed  that  Dunlap  quoted 
from  the  original  Alcuin.  A  comparison,  however,  shows 


in  his  journal  as  discussing  the  topic  of  marriage,  attracted  little 
attention,  and  many  of  the  theories  advanced  on  the  subject  of  di 
vorce  were  subsequently  abandoned  by  the  author." — The  National 
Cyclopaedia  of  America  Biography,  Vol.  II,  p.  59.  (E)  From  Mary 
Wollstonecraft  "he  derived  the  idea  of  his  next  work,  The  Dialogue  of 
of  Alcuin,  1797,  an  enthusiastic  but  inexperienced  essay  on  the  ques 
tion  of  woman's  rights  and  liberties." — The  Encyclopaedia  Brittan- 
nica,  Eleventh  Edition.  (F)  "It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  his 
first  publication,  Alcuin,  in  1797,  dealt  with  the  social  position  of 
woman,  and  advocated  a  very  advanced  theory  of  divorce.  This  brief 
work,  in  the  form  of  a  rather  stilted  dialogue,  made  little  impression." 
Trent  and  Erskine  in  "Great  American  Writers,  p.  15.  (G)  "In  1797 
he  published  a  work  on  marriage  and  divorce  entitled  The  Dialogue 
of  Alcuin." — Wendell  and  Greenough's  A  History  of  Literature  in 
America.  (H)  "The  spirit  of  Godwin  stirred  eagerly  in  Brown 
during  the  early  days  of  his  freedom.  Toward  the  end  of  1797  he 
bore  witness  by  writing  Alcuin,  a  dialogue  on  the  rights  of  women 
which  took  its  first  principles  from  Mary  Wollstonecraft  and  God 
win."  Van  Doren,  Chapter  VI,  The  Cambridge  History  of  American 
Literature.  In  an  unpublished  article  recently  put  into  my  hands 
Professor  Carl  Van  Doren,  however,  takes  note  of  this  confusion. 
There  is  an  entry  in  Dunlap's  Diary,  August  8,  1797,  which  lends 
support  to  the  statement  Alcuin  was  published  in  1797.  He  writes: 
"Now  S[mith]  showed  me  2  dialogues  called  Alcouin  sent  on  by  B. 
to  be  forwarded  to  Danies  paper."  It  is  quite  likely  that  Dunlap — 
none  too  careful  with  his  spelling  at  any  time — meant  to  write  Den- 
nie's  instead  of  Danies.  Joseph  Dennie,  a  friend  and  correspondent 
of  Smith,  was  at  this  time  editor  of  The  Farmer's  Museum  of  Wai- 
pole,  New  Hampshire.  As  I  have  not  yet  had  access  to  the  complete 
files  of  this  paper,  I  cannot  deny  that  Alcuin  was  published  therein. 
But  granting  that  it  was  published  in  1797,  its  appearance  did  not 
prevent  subsequent  confusion  with  the  second  dialogue. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         33 

that  only  three  and  one-half  pages  in  Dunlap  were  taken 
from  the  Smith  Alcuin — to  serve,  it  seems,  as  an  introduc 
tion  to  the  second  dialogue  published  in  Dunlap's  Life  in 
1815.  The  Smith  Alcuin  is  a  small  volume  of  seventy-seven 
pages  or  approximately  eleven  thousand  words,  and  is  di 
vided  into  two  parts  to  correspond  to  Alcuin's  two  visits  to 
the  home  of  Mrs.  Carter,  who  conducts  a  kind  of  Philadel 
phia  salon.  The  dialogue  as  printed  in  the  Weekly  Magazine 
differs  in  many  points  from  the  Smith  Alcuin.  It  is  some 
what  shorter ;  the  title  is  changed  to  The  Rights  of  Women; 
the  hero  is  Edwin  instead  of  Alcuin ;  significant  references 
to  certain  famous  characters  and  events  are  omitted;  the 
slur  on  the  professions  of  soldier  and  barber  is  deleted ;  and 
the  last  thirteen  lines  of  Alcuin  are  lacking  in  the  magazine 
edition.  Why  Brown  made  these  changes  is  not  readily 
seen,  and  why  he  failed  to  have  Smith  make  the  same  altera 
tions  in  the  volume  published  by  Swords,  both  of  which  ap 
peared  in  print  during  the  same  month,  is  even  more  mys 
terious.  It  seems  likely  that  Swords  printed  the  book  in 
the  spring  of  1797  or  soon  thereafter,  but  did  not  publish  it 
until  March,  1798.  This  asssumption  would  explain  the 
differences  in  the  two  versions. 

The  concluding  paragraph  of  the  Smith  Alcuin  clearly 
points  to  a  sequel.  "Here  the  conversation  was  interrupted 
by  one  of  the  company,  who,  after  listening  to  us  for  some 
time,  thought  proper  at  last  to  approach,  and  contribute  his 
mite  to  our  mutual  edification.  I  soon  seized  an  opportunity 
of  withdrawing,  but  not  without  requesting  and  obtaining 
permission  to  repeat  by  visit."  The  Smith  "Advertise 
ment"  definitely  states  that  the  discussion  was  continued  in 
another  dialogue.  That  Dunlap's  "copious  extracts"  are 
the  continuation  of  the  subject  foreshadowed  in  Alcuin  and 
clearly  expressed  in  the  "Advertisement,"  is  beyond  cavil. 
Then,  too,  the  permission  to  repeat  his  visit  which  Alcuin 
sought  is  realized  in  the  continuation — which  begins:  "A 
week  elapsed  and  I  repeated  by  visit  to  Mrs.  Carter."  The 
continuation,  referred  to  hereafter  as  the  second  dialogue, 
was  entitled  Alcuin  in  the  Philadelphia  edition  (1815)  of 


34  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

Dunlap's  Life  of  Brown,  and  the  Paradise  of  Women™  in 
the  London  edition  of  that  work  (1822). 

It  is  safe  to  conclude,  then,  that  it  was  to  the  second  dia 
logue  that  Dunlap  referred  as  being  written  in  the  fall  and 
winter  of  1797.  Smith  and  Dunlap  both  agree  that  the 
second  dialogue  was  written  after  March,  1797.  The  time 
of  the  first  is  less  certain,  but  more  significant,  as  it  was 
Brown's  first  publication.  Reasoning  from  internal  ev 
idence  alone,  however,  the  date  can  be  quite  definitely 
established  as  the  fall  of  1796.  On  page  eleven  of  Alcuin 
the  priggish  schoolmaster  speaks  of  the  pleasure  he  derives 
during  his  leisure  evenings  from  watching  a  declining  moon 
and  the  varying  firmament  with  the  optics  of  "Dr.  Young." 
The  Dr.  Young  here  referred  to  was  Thomas  Young  (1773- 
1829),  a  noted  British  physicist,  whose  paper  on  the  struc 
ture  of  the  eye  was  read  before  the  Royal  Society  when  he 
was  only  twenty  years  old,  and  established  for  him  the  name 
of  founder  of  physiological  optics.  Young  shortly  thereafter 
went  to  Germany,  and  in  July,  1796  received  the  degree  of 
doctor  of  physic  from  the  University  of  Gottingen.  On  his 
return  to  England,  he  was  hailed  as  a  great  genius.  It  is 
not  likely  that  Brown  would  refer  to  him  as  Dr.  Young  be 
fore  July,  1796.  Significant,  too,  is  Alcuin's  remark,  on  page 
fourteen,  that  "the  theme  of  the  discourse  was  political. 
The  edicts  of  Carnot,  and  the  commentary  of  that  profound 
jurist,  Peter  Porcupine,  had  furnished  ample  materials  of 
discussion."  Lazare  Nichols  Marguerite  Carnot  (1753- 
1823)  was  a  member  of  the  French  Convention,  an  import 
ant  member  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  and  the 
guiding  genius  of  the  Executive  Directory.  He  became  a 
member  of  the  Directory  in  1795,  and  because  of  his  oppo 
sition  to  the  extreme  measures  of  his  colleague  Barras,  he 
was  suspected  of  royalist  sympathy  and  was  sentenced  to 
deportation  in  1797.  He  spoke  strongly  against  the  viola 
tions  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  and  objected  to  the  dictatorial 
and  autocratic  action  of  the  Directory.  But  Brown's  refer- 


:J8In  Bage's  novel,  Man  As  He  Is   (1792),  France  is  referred  to  as 
the  "paradise  of  women,"  Vol.  II,  p.  234. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         35 

ence  to  the  edicts  of  Carnot  undoubtedly  suggests  the  un 
compromising  measures  which  Carnot  felt  were  necessary 
during  the  troublous  fall  of  1796.  In  order  to  put  down 
royalist  and  anarchistic  plots,  the  Directory  assumed  ab 
solute  power  over  the  life  and  property  of  the  citizen.  It 
is  quite  certain,  however,  that  Brown  had  in  mind  Carnot's 
instruction  to  Citizen  Adet,  the  French  minister  to  the 
United  States,  to  address  a  note  to  the  American  Secretary 
of  State  reproaching  the  Washington  Administration  for 
the  position  of  the  President  in  his  Farewell  Address  and 
for  the  Administration's  attitude  toward  the  Jay  Treaty. 
Citizen  Adet  declared  that  America  had  violated  her  sacred 
treaty  with  the  French  Republic,  and  that  as  a  solemn  pro 
test  against  that  dereliction  his  government  had  instructed 
him  to  suspend  his  duties  as  minister.  War  with  France 
or  rather  with  the  Directory  seemed  imminent.39 

Peter  Porcupine,  mentioned  in  the  same  sentence  with 
Carnot  and  referred  to  as  a  profound  jurist,  was  William 
Cobbett  (1762-1835).  He  was  an  English  soldier,  essayist, 
politician,  editor,  and  farmer  who  came  to  the  United  States 
in  1792  to  seek  a  berth  with  the  Washington  Administration. 
But,  failing  in  this,  he  settled  down  in  Philadelphia  as  a 
tutor  in  English  to  French  political  refugees.  In  1794  Joseph 
Priestley  also  came  to  America  and  plunged  immediately 
into  the  fight  for  republicanism.  This  action  of  Priestley 
drew  Cobbett  to  the  defense  of  the  Federalists,  and  his  vi 
cious  attack  upon  the  friends  of  democracy  stirred  up  the 
bitterest  pamphlet  war  known  in  American  history.  He 
issued  at  Philadelphia  a  monthly  pamphlet  under  the  title  01 
The  Censor  (January,  1796-to  March,  1797)  which  he  signet 
as  Peter  Porcupine.  In  this  paper  he  was  a  vigorous  and 
unreasonable  advocate  of  everything  British  and  a  violent 
critic  of  everything  republican.  Cobbett  even  went  so  far 
as  to  place  in  the  windows  of  his  bookstore  in  Philadelphia 
pictures  of  nobles,  princes,  and  kings — including  the  infa 
mous  George  the  Third.  We  first  learn  of  him  as  Peter 
Porcupine  in  January,  1796,  but  if  one  may  judge  from 

39Stanwood,  Edward,  A  History  of  the  Presidency,  Vol.  I,  1898. 


36  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

newspaper  allusions,  he  was  not  well  known  under  this 
pseudonym  until  August  of  the  same  year.  In  September, 
1796,  he  wrote,  "What  must  I  feel  upon  seeing  the  news 
papers  filled  from  top  to  bottom — with  A  Blue  Shop  for 
Peter  Porcupine,  A  Pill  for  Peter  Porcupine,  Peter  Porcu 
pine  Detected,"40  etc.  Cobbett  reached  the  zenith  of  his  rav 
ings  against  American  and  French  republicanism  during  the 
fall  elections  of  1796. 

While  these  allusions  to  contemporary  characters  and 
events  do  not  definitely  fix  the  date  of  the  Smith  Alcuin, 
they  at  least  point  to  an  earlier  one  than  has  usually  been 
assigned. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  Brown  is  known  only  by  the  second 
dialogue,  which  is  on  the  very  face  of  it  only  an  Utopian 
dream,  not  to  be  taken  as  representing  Brown's  real  opin 
ions.  It  is  significant,  too,  that  the  second  dialogue  is  one 
of  the  few  pieces  that  remained  unpublished  during  the  life 
time  of  the  author.  It  is  a  work  of  pure  speculation,  and  as 
such  may  represent  Brown's  fanciful  interpretation  of  so 
ciety  in  Godwin's  Political  Justice.  But  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  commonwealth  here  described  has  more  in  common  with 
the  Utopia  of  Sir  Thomas  More  than  with  the  speculations 
of  William  Godwin.  In  fact  the  influence  of  Godwin  on  the 
thought  of  the  two  dialogues  diminishes  in  proportion  as  one 
studies  them  in  relation  to  the  temper  of  the  age. 

The  discussions  in  the  first  dialogue,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  thoroughly  sincere  and  practical,  and  represent  the  most 
respectable  democratic  doctrine  of  the  day.  Indeed,  it  is 
Brown's  contribution  to  the  great  debate  between  the  Fed 
eralists  and  Republicans  during  the  stormy  days  of  1796, 
and  registers  his  protest  against  the  conservative  American 
Constitution.  Brown,  with  others,  had  been  clearly  disap 
pointed  with  the  failure  of  the  f ramers  of  the  Constitution 
to  embody  in  that  document  the  principles  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  The  Smith  Alcuin  is,  furthermore,  the 

^Selections  from  Cobbett's  Political  Works:  being  a  complete 
abridgement  of  the  100  volumes  which  comprise  the  writings  of  Peter 
Porcupine,  London,  1835. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         37 

first  extended  serious  argument  for  the  rights  of  women 
that  had  yet  appeared  in  America,  and  as  such  it  merits  the 
praise  that  is  the  pioneer's.  It  is  the  author's  plea  for  the 
natural  right  of  women  to  share  in  the  political  and  eco 
nomic  life  of  the  nation.  In  this  general  claim  for  women 
Brown  was  not  at  all  singular,  as  has  already  been  pointed 
out,  for  he  only  gave  voice  to  a  time-honored  Quaker  con 
viction  of  the  essential  equality  of  women  with  men.  Fur 
thermore,  we  have  seen  that  this  conception  of  women's 
rights  and  capabilities  was  of  slow  growth  from  Mary  Astell 
to  Brockden  Brown,  and  that  it  was  neither  fathered  nor 
fostered  exclusively  by  only  one.  So  much  for  the  general 
character  of  the  work. 

As  Alcuin  is  almost  inaccessible,  a  detailed  account  of  it 
is  advisable.  In  each  dialogue  the  argument  is  conveyed 
in  a  conversation  between  the  priggish  schoolmaster  Alcuin 
and  the  widowed  Mrs.  Carter,  a  Philadelphia  blue-stocking.41 
She  is  familiar  with  the  current  arguments  for  the  rights 
of  women,  and  generally  takes  a  more  radical  stand  than 
Alcuin.  Her  argument  goes  beyond  that  of  Mary  Woll- 
stonecraft,  whose  plea  is  fundamentally  for  the  emancipa 
tion  of  women  from  low  social  standards  through  an  educa 
tion  similar  to  that  for  men ;  Mrs.  Carter's  contention  is  for 
political  and  economic  equality  with  men.  Indeed,  her  ideas 
on  this  and  other  subjects  are  so  singular  that  her  home  be 
comes  a  rendezvous  for  all  liberal  and  respectable  talent,  so 
that  perhaps  the  strongest  inducement  to  visit  her  home  was 
not  the  attraction  of  the  woman,  but  that  of  the  brilliant  so- 
ciey  that  gathered  there.  Following  the  description  of  Mrs. 
Carter  and  her  liberal  coterie  is  a  bit  of  philosophy  on  the 
comparative  merits  of  reading  and  conversation  as  means  of 
instruction.  Like  Swift,  Alcuin  sings  the  praises  of  con 
versation.  Books  are  too  dull  and  insipid,  and  he  hates  a 
lecturer,  because  his  audience  cannot  canvass  each  step  in 
the  argument.  Formal  debate  is  also  condemned.  But  con 
versation  is  free  and  unfettered  and  blends,  more  happily 


41  Brown  may  wish  to  remind  his  readers  of  the  famous  London 
blue-stocking,  Elizabeth  Carter    (1717-1806). 


38  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

than  any  other  method  of  instruction,  utility  and  pleasure. 
Alcuin  spends  the  day  in  repeating  the  alphabet  or  engrav 
ing  on  infantile  minds  that  twice  three  make  six,  and  the 
evening,  until  his  acquaintance  with  Mrs.  Carter,  in  ampli 
fying  the  seductive  suppositions,  "if  I  were  a  king"  or  "if  I 
were  a  lover."  The  schoolmaster  longs  for  the  liberalising 
influence  that  only  the  conversation  of  the  ingenious  can 
give,  and  after  a  careful  self -analysis  he  decides  to  become 
a  frequent  visitor  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Carter.  We  are  now, 
after  fourteen  dreary  pages  of  introduction,  permitted  to 
hear  the  dialogue  between  Mrs.  Carter  and  Alcuin.  The 
very  dullness  and  narrow  outlook  of  this  prologue,  the  least 
attractive  part  of  the  book,  stand  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
liberal  views  that  follow. 

Alcuin,  when  the  embarrassment  of  the  introduction  to 
the  circle  is  over,  respectfully  withdraws  to  a  corner  of  the 
room  and  there  finds  opportunity  to  engage  the  lady  in  con 
versation.  He  somewhat  awkwardly  begins :  "Pray,  madam, 
are  you  a  federalist?"  She  evades  the  question,  and  replies 
indirectly  that  she  has  often  been  called  upon  to  listen  to 
political  discussions,  but  never  before  was  she  asked  her 
own  opinion.  Mrs.  Carter  declares  that  women,  shallow 
and  inexperienced  as  they  all  are,  have  nothing  to  do  with 
politics;  that  their  time  is  consumed  in  learnng  the  price 
of  ribbon  or  tea  or  in  plying  the  needle.  No  wonder,  then, 
she  asserts  with  Defoe,  Swift,42  and  others,  that  women  are 
narrow,  and  for  the  sake  of  variety  they  sometimes  wan 
der  into  the  pleasant  fields  of  scandal.  Alcuin  admits  the 
force  of  this  argument,  but  submits  that  the  work  of  woman 
is  not  less  useful  and  honorable  than  that  of  many  profes 
sions  assigned  to  men,  notably  those  of  barber  and  soldier. 
He  dwells  on  the  noble  character  of  practical,  simple,  every- 


Astell,  Defoe,  Swift,  Mary  Wollstonecraft,  and  Godwin, 
whose  ideas  are  paralleled  in  Alcuin,  are  not  specifically  mentioned; 
Plato,  Lycurgus,  Newton,  and  Locke  are,  however. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         39 

day  work.4S  He  further  declares  that  women  are  the  equals 
of  men  in  all  essential  respects  and  morally  their  superiors ; 
that  the  distinctions  based  upon  sex  differences  are  of  no 
consequence;  and  with  the  whole  body  of  French  and  Eng 
lish  advocates  of  the  rights  of  women,  Alcuin  maintains 
that  whatever  important  distinctions  there  are  between  men 
and  women  are  the  direct  results  of  differences  in  oppor 
tunities.  Women  are  superficial  and  ignorant  because  they 
are  generally  cooks  and  seamstresses. 

But  unlike  those  who  believe  in  the  infinite  perfectibility 
of  man,  Alcuin  takes  a  pessimistic  view.  He  declares  that 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  career  of  the  species  will  end  in 
knowledge,  and  with  Locke  he  holds  that  man  is  born  in 
ignorance,  that  habit  has  given  permanence  to  error.  He 
rejects  the  notion  of  innate  ideas.  Through  ignorance  or 
prejudice  certain  employments  have  been  exclusively  as 
signed  to  men,  and  the  constitutional  aversion  of  human 
nature  to  any  change  has  confirmed  this  error.  Mrs.  Car 
ter  adds  that  of  all  forms  of  injustice  that  is  most  vicious 
which  makes  the  circumstance  of  sex  a  reason  for  exclud 
ing  half  of  mankind  from  the  more  useful  and  honorable 
professions.  Alcuin  falls  back  for  a  moment  upon  the  re 
spectable  Whig  doctrine  of  "Whatever  is,  is  right,"  and 
replies  that  the  real  evil  lies  in  the  fact  that  so  much  human 
capacity  is  perverted.44  Then  Alcuin  follows  the  argument 
of  Plato,  More,  and  Godwin  in  desiring  to  have  all  tasks 
shared  in  common  without  distinction  of  sex,  but,  unlike 
Godwin,  Alcuin  is  not  sure  that  such  an  arrangement  would 
be  practicable.  He  laments  that,  on  account  of  a  perverted 
civilization,  large  portions  of  mankind  are  doomed  to  toil, 
but  he  laments  thus  not  because  they  are  men  or  women,  but 
because  they  are  human  bengs.  This  is  in  line  with  the 

42Alcuin'z  reasoning  here  parallels  in  a  remarkable  way  that  of 
Fenelon  in  his  De  Veavcation  des  filles  (1681).  It  is  very  likely 
that  Brown  was  acquainted  with  this  work,  as  he  certainly  was  with 
Telemaque,  for  he  mentions  Fenelon  in  an  address  before  the  Belles 
Lettres  Club. 

44Cf.  Poulain's  De  VEgalite  des  deux  Sexes. 


40  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

humanitarian  movement  of  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  is  not  exclusively  Godwinian.  But  Mrs.  Carter 
insists  that  under  any  arrangement  women  would  bear  the 
greater  burden  because  of  the  duties  of  motherhood.  Al- 
cuin  replies  that  luxury  and  its  attendant  evils  have  greatly 
increased  that  burden.  Mrs.  Carter  believes  that  woman's 
field  of  usefulness  is  too  much  limited  by  a  consideration  of 
her  function  as  mother,  particularly  as  regards  the  liberal 
professions.45  But  Alcuin  insists  that  women  are  not  really 
excluded  from  the  higher  professions,  that  in  Europe  at 
least  women  are  found  in  such  professions.  He  could  never 
wish  woman  to  stoop  to  the  practice  of  law,  and  as  for  the 
ministry  some  sects  (the  Quakers  and  Methodists,  of  course) 
do  not  debar  women  from  the  pulpit.  The  Christian  re 
ligion  has  done  much  to  break  down  distinctions  of  rank, 
wealth,  and  sex.  Mrs.  Carter  does  not  try  to  refute  Alcuin's 
argument,  but  she  points  out  that  all  professions  which 
require  most  vigor  of  mind,  the  greatest  contact  with  en 
lightened  society  and  books,  are  filled  by  men  only.  Alcuin 
replies  by  attacking  all  the  liberal  professions,  charging 
them  with  sordid  motives;  usefulness  as  such  is  but  a  sec 
ondary  consideration.  Benevolence,  universal  benevolence, 
should  be  the  keynote  of  all  the  liberal  callings — college  de 
grees  and  examinations  matter  but  little. 

At  this  point  Mrs.  Carter  broaches  the  question  of  wo- 
"man's  education.  She  takes  the  same  line  of  argument  as 
Defoe,  Swift,  and  others  that  women  have  been  educated 
for  the  profession  of  household  slaves,  that  women  of  qual 
ity  are  instructed  in  the  art  of  the  coquette.  Men  believe 
that  women  should  be  thus  educated ;  consequently,  they  are 
excluded  from  schools  and  colleges.  Here  again  Alcuiu 
takes  a  wholly  unexpected  turn  in  his  argument  by  question 
ing1  the  advisability  of  a  college  education,  even  for  men, 
for  it  seems  unfavorable  to  moral  and  intellectual  improve 
ment.40  It  would  be  indelicate  to  conduct  mixed  classes  in 

45Cf.  Poulain's  De  VEgalite  des  deuac  Sexes. 

40Fenelon  in  L'Education  des  Filles  takes  this  same  position.  See 
also  John  Trumbull's  The  Progress  of  Dulness  (1772-3).  The  same 
strictures  on  college  education  are  found  in  the  works  of  Hopkinson 
and  Freneau. 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women         41 

anatomy  or  other  such  subjects.  This  idea  of  false  mod 
esty  gives  Mrs.  Carter  an  opportunity  to  inveigh  against 
those  who  urge  the  separation  of  the  sexes  on  the  score  of 
delicacy.  With  Mary  Wollstonecraft  and  Condorcet  she  in 
sists  that  nothing  has  been  so  injurious  as  the  separation  of 
the  sexes.  They  are  associated  in  childhood,  but  soon  they 
are  made  to  take  different  paths,  learn  different  language^ 
different  maxims,  different  pursuits ;  their  relations  become 
fettered  and  embarrassed.  With  the  one  all  is  reserve  and 
artifice,  with  the  other  adulation  and  affected  humility :  the 
man  must  affect  ardor,  the  woman  indifference — her  tongue 
belies  the  sentiments  of  her  heart  and  the  dictates  of  her 
mind .  Her_early  life  is  a  preparation  for  marriage ;_  her 
married  life  is  a  state  of  slavery.  She  loses  all  title  to  pri 
vate  property,  and  the  right  of  private  opinion ;  she  knows 
nothing  but  the  will  of  her  husband,  and  she  may  prevail 
only  by  tears  and  blandishments. 

Alcuin  thinks  this  a  great  exaggeration,  but  Mrs.  Carter 
asserts  that  the  picture  is  exact,  that  her  own  life  has  suf 
fered  from  a  mistaken  education.  Man  is  physically  stronger 
and  thus  in  the  primitive  condition  of  society,  woman  was 
enslaved ;  but  the  tendency  toward  rational  improvement 
has  been  to  equalize  conditions  and  to  level  all  distinctions 
not  based  upon  truth  and  reason.  Women  have  benefited 
by  this  progress  of  reason,  but  they  are  not  wholly  exempt 
from  servitude.  Alcuin  admits  that  the  lot  of  woman  is 
hard,  but  he  points  out  that  it  is  the  preferable  one,  freest 
from  the  thorns  of  life — and  then  he  trails  off  into  the  song 
of  the  needle,  and  the  hand  that  conjures  a  piano.  Mrs. 
Carter  replies  that  this  is  but  a  panegyric  on  indolence  and 
luxury,  in  which  neither  distinguished  virtue  nor  true  hap 
piness  is  found.  Alcuin  agrees  that  ease  and  luxury  are 
pernicious ;  that  the  rich  and  the  poor  alike  are  denied  real 
happiness  and  peace,47  but  still  their  lot  is  better  than  brutal 
toil  and  ignorance.  He  concludes  his  argument  by  a  state- 


47This  point  is  particularly  emphasized   in  Poulain's  De  VEgalite 
des  deny  Sexes. 


42  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

ment  that  there  is  something  wrong  with  society  as  it  is 
now  constituted,  and  appeals  to  Mrs.  Carter  to  waive  the 
problem  of  women  and  urge  the  much  greater  claims  of 
enslaved  human  beings. 

Again  Alcuin  inquires  of  Mrs.  Carter  whether  she  is  a 
federalist;  again  she  protests  that  women  have  nothing  to 
do  with  politics,  that  the  American  government  takes  no 
heed  of  them,  that  the  Constitution-makers,  without  the 
slightest  consciousness  of  inconsistency  or  injustice,  ex 
cluded  them  from  all  political  rights,  and  made  no  distinc 
tion  between  women  and  irrational  animals.  In  the  sense 
that  she  prefers  union  to  dissension  she  is  a  federalist ;  but 
if  the  term  means  the  approval  of  the  Constitution  as  a 
document  embodying  the  principles  of  right  and  justice,  she 
is  not  a  federalist. 

It  is  when  Mrs.  Carter  inveighs  against  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  as  harsh  and  unjust  that  she  waxes 
most  eloquent.  She  scoffs  at  the  maxims  of  the  Constitu 
tion  that  proclaim  that  all  power  is  derived  from  the  people, 
that  liberty  is  every  one's  birthright  and  is  the  immediate 
gift  of  God  to  all  mankind,  that  those  who  are  subject  to 
the  laws  should  enjoy  a  share  in  their  enactment.  These 
maxims  are  specious,  and  our  glorious  Constitution  in 
practice  is  a  system  of  tyranny.  One  is  denied  a  voice  in 
the  election  of  his  governor  because  he  is  not  twenty-one; 
another  because  he  has  not  been  a  resident  for  two  years; 
a  third  because  he  can  not  show  a  tax  receipt;  a  fourth 
because  his  skin  is  black ;  a  fifth  merely  because  she  is  a 
woman.  So  what  have  we  to  boast  in  the  name  of  divinest 
liberty  when  only  a  small  fraction  of  our  people  have  a 
voice  in  our  government? 

Here  Alcuin  takes  refuge  in  the  Quaker  doctrine  that  the 
spirit  is  of  vastly  more  importance  than  the  form  of  gov 
ernment;  that  the  value  of  any  government  is  measured  by 
the  character  of  the  men  who  administer  its  laws.  But  this 
subtle  distinction  between  power  and  the  exercise  of  power 
does  not  find  favor  with  Mrs.  Carter;  she  wishes  a  voice 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women        43 

in  the  choice  of  even  the  wise  man.  She  is  willing  to  ad 
mit  that  government  by  the  wisest  would  be  the  best  gov 
ernment,  but  how  are  the  sages  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  mediocre,  and  how  is  one  to  know  that  the  wise  man 
cannot  be  corrupted?  That  government  is  best,  all  things 
considered,  that  consults  the  feelings  and  judgments  of  the 
governed.  Alcuin  insists,  however,  that  some  qualifications 
should  be  required  of  the  voter.  Mrs.  Carter  sidetracks  by 
saying  that  she  is  not  arguing  the  claims  of  mankind  in 
general,  but  the  rights  of  women  in  particular;  for  mere 
sex  is  so  purely  a  physical  matter  that  to  make  it  a  basis 
for  excluding  one-half  of  mankind  from  the  enjoyment  of 
their  natural  rights  is  sheer  folly. 

Alcuin  is  most  absurd  in  the  eyes  of  Mrs.  Carter  when  he 
suggests  that  women  justly  relinquish  all  claims  to  liberty 
and  property  when  they  marry;  that  they  are  contented 
with  their  present  position;  that  they  would  not  exercise 
the  rights  of  citizens  if  the  privilege  were  extended  to  them 
—this  was  a  common  argument  in  New  Jersey  where  women 
had  the  privilege  of  voting,  but  very  seldom  took  part  in 
the  elections.  Alcuin  admits  that  he  is  prejudiced,  that  he 
could  never  bring  himself  to  sympathize  with  the  claims  of 
women  to  rights  in  business  and  politics;  but  he  closes  the 
argument  by  prudently  acknowledging  that  since  women 
are  as  thoughtful  as  men,  and  are  more  beautiful,  they  are 
therefore  the  superior  sex. 

Thus  ends  the  first  dialogue  or  the  Smith  Alcuin.  Just 
why  Dunlap  elected  to  publish  the  more  Utopian  second  is  a 
matter  that  passes  understanding.  It  is  only  possible  that 
he  wished  thereby  to  re-create  the  speculative  phase  through 
which  Brown  was  then  (1797)  passing.  That  Dunlap  was 
acquainted  with  the  first  dialogue  is  evident  from  the  fact 
he  recorded  in  his  Diary  (April  28,  1798)  :  "Read  today 
Smith's  publication  of  Brown's  'Alcuin,'  1  &  2  parts."  Then 
on  the  following  day  he  notes  that  he  read  parts  three  and 
four.  It  may  be  suggested  that  Dunlap  felt  that  the  first 
dialogue  had  received  sufficient  publication  in  the  Smith 
volume  and  the  Weekly  Magazine.  Certainly  Dunlap  thought 


44  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

highly  of  the  first  one,  for  an  entry  in  his  Diary  (August 
8,  1797)  states  that  "there  is  much  truth,  philosophical  ac 
curacy  and  handsome  writing  in  the  essay."  Perhaps,  if 
Dunlap  had  foreseen  the  misunderstanding  growing  out  of 
his  publication  of  the  second  dialogue,  he  would  have  spared 
his  friend's  reputation. 


The  second  work  opens  with  Alcuin's  declaration  that  he 
has  just  returned  from  a  visit  to  the  paradise  of  women— 
a  phrase  commonly  applied  to  France — and  that  the  journey 
had  been  made  instantaneously.  To  allay  Mrs.  Carter's 
suspicion,  Alcuin  gives  a  lecture  on  the  nature  of  the  ex 
ternal  world,  following-  with  almost  verbal  minuteness  at 
times,  the  argument  which  George  Berkeley  (1685-1733) 
advanced  to  show  that  the  external  world4*  exists  only  in  the 
mind  that  perceives  it.  Alcuin  states  that  the  language  of 
the  people  whom  he  visited  is  English;  that  their  buildings 
show  traces  of  Greek  and  Roman  models. 

This  may  be  meant  to  suggest  Godwin's  Political  Justice, 
but  more  likely  Utopia  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  for  Godwin 
says  little  about  the  rights  of  women  apart  from  their  mat 
rimonial  enslavement.  But  with  the  Utopia  there  are  nu 
merous  points  of  contact.  The  frame-work  is  suggestive  of 
Gulliver's  Travels.  In  this  island  commonwealth  of  Brown 
both  sexes  were  engaged  in  "awakening  by  their  notes,  the 
neighboring  echoes,  or  absorbed  in  musing  silence,  or  en 
gaged  in  sprightly  debate."  There  were  vast  halls  for  mu 
sicians  and  dancers;  halls  where  state  affairs  were  the 
theme  of  sonorous  rhetoric,  or  where  the  poet  or  annalist, 
or  the  chemist,  or  the  mechanical  inventor,  displayed  his 
gifts. 

At  this  point  Mrs.  Carter  stinteth  Alcuin  of  his  glowing 
description;  she  wishes  information  unembarrassed  bv- 
rhetoric  or  ignorant  conjecture.  In  response  he  draws  a 
picture  of  conditions  as  he  observed  them:  there  was  no 
distinction  in  dress ;  the  women  shared  equally  with  men 
in  all  recreational  activities;  in  the  matter  of  art,  poetry, 
science,  or  debate  the  sexes  mingled  their  inquiries,  as  all 
were  votaries  of  reason.  As  Gulliver  found  it  difficult  to 


^Dialogues,  p.  379  ff.;  Commonplace  Book,  Vol.  I,  p.  92.     Alexan 
der   C.   Fraser   ed.     It  should  be  noted   that   Godwin    in   the   second 
edition  of  Political  Justice   (1796)  had  a  brief  footnote  on  Berkeley's 
theory,  but  Brown  does  not  seem  to  have  followed  him. 


46  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

make  himself  understood  among  the  Houyhnhnms  because 
of  the  irrational  meanings  that  he  attached  to  words,  just 
so  Alcuin  is  rebuffed  in  drawing  moral  and  political  dis 
tinctions  from  a  consideration  of  a  difference  in  sex.  His 
guide  admits  finally  that  he  has  heard  of  nations  of  men 
universally  infected  by  error,  and  asks  Alcuin  to  give  an 
account  of  some  of  those  errors.  He  mentions  differences 
in  dress,  in  education,  in  occupations,  and  in  marriage.  The 
guide  replies  that  utility  guided  by  reason  should  deter 
mine  one's  choice  in  dress;  as  to  education  it  is  prepos 
terous  to  think  that  there  should  be  any  difference  for  the 
two  sexes — the  only  demand  made  is  that  those  instructed 
be  rational.  With  Locke  he  holds  that  we  are  born  in 
ignorance,  that  ideas  are  received  only  through  the  senses, 
that  our  knowledge  broadens  with  our  experiences.  In  this, 
nature  has  made  no  distinction  in  the  sexes ;  education  and 
environment  are  the  deciding  factors  in  one's  career,  and 
the  proper  educational  ideal  is  a  curious  mind  in  a  sound 
body.  The  young  are  admitted  to  the  assemblies  of  their 
elders  and  are  instructed  by  them,  as  in  the  Utopia.  Con 
versations,  books,  instruments,  specimens  of  art  and  na 
ture,  haunts  of  meditation,  public  halls,  and  leisure  are  at 
the  disposal  of  all  without  discrimination  of  age  or  sex — 
again  suggesting  Utopia. 

As  all  must  be  provided  with  food,  clothing,  and  shelter, 
all  must  share  in  the  production  of  these  necessities.  Agri 
culture  is  considered  the  most  useful  occupation,  as  in  the 
Utopia;  all  are  obliged  to  till  the  soil,  thereby  eliminating 
any  drudgery  that  would  otherwise  be  the  lot  of  a  few. 
One  should  share  in  the  common  labor,  not  because  he  shares 
in  the  fruits,  but  because  he  is  being  guided  by  reason  and 
susceptible  of  happiness.  It  therefore  becomes  one's  priv 
ilege  to  promote  the  happiness  of  others.  Alcuin  suggests 
that  women  are  usually  thought  to  be  too  soft  and  delicate 
for  rough  and  toilsome  occupations,  to  which  his  interlocu 
tor  replies  that  that  is  the  argument  of  men. 

At  this  juncture  the  conversation  is  changed  from  the 
general  to  the  specific  subject  of  marriage.  Mrs.  Carter 
here  interposes  a  caution  against  Alcuin's  overstepping  the 


Brockden  Brown  and  the  Rights  of  Women        47 

bounds  of  modesty  in  the  discussion  of  so  delicate  a  ques 
tion.  She  warns  him  that  she  is  prepossessed  in  favor  of 
the  system  of  marriage,  but  she  is  willing  to  reason  on  the 
matter.  With  the  preliminary  sparring  on  questions  of 
delicacy  and  sophistry  over,  Alcuin  begins  by  declaring  that 
in  that  paradise  there  is  no  institution  of  marriage.  Mrs. 
Carter  sees  at  once  the  course  of  his  argument  and  accuses 
him  of  being  in  sympathy  with  that  class  of  reasoners  lately 
risen — meaning  most  likely  Godwin  and  the  whole  French 
school — "who  aim  at  the  deepest  foundation  of  civil  so 
ciety."  She  is  thrown  on  the  defensive  and  protests  in 
solemn  tones  her  belief  in  the  institution  of  marriage,  for 
without  it  all  perception  of  moral  rectitude  would  be  de 
stroyed.  Mrs.  Carter  vigorously  denounces  Godwin's  posi 
tion  on  marriage  and  the  sacred  charities  of  family  life — 
of  course  Godwin's  name  is  not  mentioned,  but  his  pet 
phrases  are.  Alcuin  reminds  Mrs.  Carter  that  she  once 
submitted  specific  objections  to  the  present  system  of  mar 
riage;  that  it  renders  the  woman  a  slave  to  the  man,  that 
it  leaves  the  woman  destitute  of  property. 

At  this  point  Alcuin  philosophizes  at  length  on  the  nature 
of  property  and  its  relation  to  the  family,  following  rather 
closely  Locke's  ideas.  With  the  same  authority  he  urges 
that  since  the  family  must  have  some  head  the  natural  head 
is  the  man.  Here,  curiously,  Mrs.  Carter  takes  her  main 
argument  from  Godwin  in  his  condemnation  of  cohabita 
tion  as  the  destroyer  of  reverence,  personality,  opinion,  lib 
erty,  and  self-respect.  But  still  Mrs.  Carter  insists  that  the 
institution  of  marriage  is  sacred,  "but  iniquitous  laws,  by 
making  it  a  compact  of  slavery,  by  imposing  impracticable 
conditions  and  extorting  impious  promises  have,  in  most 
countries,  converted  it  into  something  flagitious  and  hate 
ful."  Her  remedy  is  spontaneous,  unlimited  divorce  on  the 
complaint  of  either  party — such  as  obtained  in  France  at 
that  time.  This  is  followed  by  a  gruesome  picture  of  the 
ills  of  domestic  life.  Such  ills  often  result  from  a  marriage 
of  love  or  convenience,  but  seldom  from  one  based  upon 
friendship  guided  by  reason.  She  borrows  Godwin's  phrase 
"groundless  and  obstinate  attachment"49  to  describe  those 
affections  that  persist  beyond  reason. 

49Godwin,  William,  Political  Justice,  Vol.  II,  p.  245. 


48  University  of  Texas  Bulletin 

Emboldened  by  Mrs.  Carter's  liberal  views,  Alcuin  dares 
to  advance  a  step  further  by  suggesting  that  marriage  is  but 
custom  after  all,  a  suggestion,  however,  which  Mrs.  Carter 
rejects.  She  ends  the  dialogue  by  restating  her  position. 
Marriage,  she  says,  is  a  union  founded  on  free  and  mutual 
consent;  it  cannot  exist  without  friendship  and  personal 
fidelity;  it  will  cease  to  be  just  when  it  ceases  to  be  sponta 
neous. 

As  the  author's  first  serious  publication,  Alcuin  is  prom 
ising.  The  style  is  simple,  easy,  and  forceful;  the  descrip 
tions  vivid  and  accurate,  and  the  argument  persuasive.  But 
as  a  whole  it  is  crude  and  unorganized ;  it  lacks  a  good  dispo 
sition  of  the  material  and  a  consistent  grasp  of  character; 
and  the  conversation  is  not  at  all  brilliant.  Only  the  un- 
usualness  of  the  ideas  could  ever  have  made  it  interesting. 
But  now  that  those  ideas  have  been  largely  realized,  one 
finds  it  increasingly  difficult  to  read  the  book  with  sus 
tained  interest.  Co-education  is  general,  the  professions 
are  open  to  men  and  women  without  discrimination,  women 
now  have  a  share  in  the  enactment  of  the  laws  under  which 
they  live,  the  marriage  bond  no  longer  makes  a  slave  of 
the  woman,  and  it  begins  to  appear  that  spontaneous  and 
unlimited  divorce  is  the  rule  of  the  day.  Common  as  these 
things  are  now,  they  were  in  Brown's  day  most  revolution 
ary,  and  for  the  advocacy  of  such,  many  men  and  women 
were  dogged  unceasingly  by  the  law,  particularly  in  France 
and  England. 

It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  Alcuin  made  the  least 
stir  in  America;  even  among  the  author's  friends  this 
maiden  attempt  was  received  but  coldly.  The  Smith  Alcuin 
must  have  had  only  a  small  circulation,  for  it  is  now  one  of 
the  rarest  American  books.  The  version  in  the  Philadel 
phia  Weekly  Magazine,  of  course,  reached  a  much  larger 
public,  but  there  is  not  the  least  evidence  that  it  attracted 
any  special  attention.  Smith  in  the  "Advertisement"  held 
out  a  promise  of  a  second  dialogue  on  the  same  subject  if 
the  first  received  a  cordial  welcome.  It  is  to  be  observed 
that  the  second  remaining  in  hiding  until  1815.  Brown 
must  have  felt  that  his  talent  did  not  lie  in  the  field  of 
dialectics,  for  he  immediately  turned  to  the  writing  of  ro 
mances  to  release  the  energy  that  stirred  in  him. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

~*,.v      «i    MO.  642-3405 

HOME  USE 

CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
MAIN  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 
1-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling  642-3405. 
6-month  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  Circulation  Desk. 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior 

to  due  date. 

ALL  BOOKS  ARE  SUBJECT  TO  RECALL  7  DAYS 
AFTER  DATE  CHECKED  OUT. 


O     I 


1075 


DEC  1  3  1975 


__ 


_ 


BY 


1S34 


LD21  —  A-40m-5,'74 
(R8191L,) 


General  Library 
.          University  of  California 
Berkeley 


RECD  CIRC  DEPT        JUN   1   8 '74  j 

f  1 1 0  c  i  V  c  L> 


CIRCULATION  DEp-Li 


HLET  BINDER 

Syrocuse,  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Calif. 


